Crutches...

"Hey Stacie ... wha-what?" 

Michaela stood in the doorway to Stacie's room, staring at her younger sister. "What in the world? I thought your leg was better!" Stacie hobbled toward Michaela on a pair of crutches. "Yeah," said Stacie, looking at her crutches, "it is, but I just got so used to walking with these that I decided to use them again."

Okay, a little ridiculous, right? But how often do we act the same way?

When the Lord Jesus saved us, He gave us a new life, a fresh start. We are chosen, adopted, redeemed, and forgiven (Eph.1:4–8), but some days we forget who we are. We go back to crutches, allowing our sin to cripple us. Yelling at our siblings, rebelling against our parents, succumbing to peer pressure, living totally opposite to God's Word ... we almost go back to "crawling" sometimes.

Consider the man sentenced to 35 years in prison. When his time was up, he hesitated at the door to his cell, and then turned back, reluctant to leave the cold familiarity of the jail he'd lived in for so long.

Your friend hands you an ice cream cone (vanilla for me, thank you!). You push it away, saying, "Ah, not right now. I've got some delicious dirt I'd rather eat instead." What! Your friend may call the insane FREAK! Yet we reject the freedom of new life in Christ for old ways of living and stubborn sin.

Many Christians today reject the freedom of Christ by continuing in their former lives. But though we come just as we are, we can't stay the way we are. God is constantly calling us to higher places, to Himself, calling us to leave our crutches behind. "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (Heb. 12:1). He gives us the Holy Spirit Who works within us to say "no" to sin.

With the power of God, we can bite our tongues when we feel like yelling at our younger siblings. Through the strength of the Holy Spirit, we can submit ourselves to our parents' authority. And, reminded by God's Word, we can say to friends who encourage us to sin, "No way, I'm not who I was, I'm a child of God. I cannot do that anymore." God will provide what we need to stand. There is no need to use crutches any longer.

So say "goodbye" to crutches. You can walk! Step outside your prison cell; you aren't locked up anymore. You are free, free to be a child of God, what you were meant to be.

Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. —1 Peter 2:16