Unshackle Moments ~ April 3 ~ Powerless

yesterday's Unshackled Moment took my reaction to a photo of snake covered in ticks to deal wth the topic of holding onto truth and letting it control our actions and reactions. Today, I wan t to quickly return to that same tick covered snake photo for a look from another perspective. The image made me sick. There's something about ticks all alien looking and bloated on blood that I don't like. Then there;s the associate memories of childhood romps through the woods at my grandparents only to spend what felt like hours later standing in my underwear while my father, tweezers and alcohol at the ready, checked me for ticks and the cautions of the horrors of leaving the head behind if they were pulled off improperly. I hate ticks.

To see a living something so covered that there is no space to see the creature between the parasites, just a tick shaped body is horrible to me. Even if you hate snakes I think you might agree. Death would be better than living that covered in ticks and, here's the nightmare, be unable to do anything about it.  snake has no arms or hands with which to remove ticks. They have no family or friends to help with the task either. Where and how they travel takes them face first through infested areas and the head slowly becomes covered to the point where they can't even see. So now, they are blind as well. That is powerlessness and it scares me and creeps me out.

No one wants to think themselves so powerless that they can't keep from collecting ticks until they are so covered they are blinded because nothing they were able to do could remove them. But that is exactly how powerless we are over sin and our old nature. We travel through areas infested with parasites that bind us, blind us and feed off us until they finally kill us. Nothing we can do can keep them off or remove them once they are there. We need someone greater, someone who cares enough to want to set us free but who also has the power to remove the problem and to prevent it from happening again. That's what Jesus did for us on the cross. He removed the power of the sin ticks that covered our souls and His forgiveness removed them from us, while the grace and power of the Holy Spirit enables us to go through life without becoming infested again. Once we surrender we are no longer powerless because He freely gives us His power.

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