Looking out my office window today there is a leaf caught in an unseen thread of a spider’s web. I’ve known the spider’s been there for a while, there is a funnel web outside the window that leads to the corner of the sill.  What I didn’t know is how far out the web reached.  This fine, gossamer web is able to keep hold of the leaf, regardless of the wind that makes it spin and pull at its restraint.

It reminds me that this is the time of year when I will inevitably walk into a spider’s web.  This is what I look like when that happens:

There is no dignified response when you walk into a web.  It’s a mad dance of fury, an unlooked for exercise in futility.  You spend the rest of the day pulling webbing off of your face, just wondering when the spider’s going to crawl over your shoulder. Fortunately, we have more strength than the leaf caught in the web in my window, we can, eventually, break free.

But not from every web.  “Sin is crouching at the door,” it is waiting to devour you. Sin lies in waiting with hidden snares and webs that will bind up your soul in its destructive hold.

Quite often, we never see it coming.  The temptations of the web are subtle, enticing, or otherwise so imperceptible, that when we do finally notice, its too late.  We chase that momentary thought of self-pity and entitlement to its natural end and we are day-dreaming of vengeance and selfishness.  We catch a glimpse of something from the corner of the eye and an hour later we’re watching something with no redeeming value.  We say we only “share because we care,” but in reality we enjoy being the source of gossip and sought out by others.

The problem is, sin has such a hold on us we cannot break free.  Like Frodo bound in Shelob’s web, we are incapacitated and unable to help ourselves.

No matter how much you struggle, once entangled in sin, you cannot get free.  Every effort simply makes the binding even tighter.

The good news is this: Christ breaks the power of cancelled sin.  By his atoning work on the cross, Jesus has not only cancelled the power of sin in your life by taking the guilt and wrath you rightly deserved upon himself, he also has set you free from sin’s power to reign over you.

Psalm 31:3-5 says, “You are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.”

By faith in Jesus Christ, you have been set free from the entangling web of sin, and hidden in the refuge, the fortress, the rock!  By his word and Spirit, Christ leads you and guides you in righteousness for his name’s sake.  Commit yourself to him, for he is faithful, and will keep you from stumbling.

SDG