How to Escape a Monkey Trap

I just saw this quote on Facebook: "God is preparing you for new things, but you've got to let go of some of your old things." That's essentially what repentance means. We naturally pick up bad habits, frequently without meaning to, and we must learn to let them go so we can move on.

I'm reminded of a monkey trap. I've heard that if you want to catch a monkey, one way to do it is to put a piece of fruit in a heavy box with a hole that's only barely big enough for the monkey to get his hand through. When the monkey reaches in to get the fruit, he'll find that he can't get it out because he can't pull his hand out of the box while it's wrapped around the fruit. The monkey becomes stuck, not because the box had any kind of trap on it, but because he refuses to let go of the fruit.

Satan would like to trap us, but he has no real power to take away our freedom. All he can do is tempt us to make bad decisions. Over time, those decisions can become habits, and sometimes we hold onto those habits, even after we've realized that they're what's holding us back. Thankfully, Satan can't restrain us after we've made the decision to let go of the fruit and leave. We can always choose to let go. Yes, we'll miss out on some fruit, some temporary pleasures, and the empty promises that our enemy offers, but what we get instead is so much better.

God has promised us great things. We have a glorious future waiting for us. But we can't get there with our hands trapped in fruit boxes. In order to get the new things God has promised us, we have to let go of the old things that are holding us back.