Like a ball and chain around his ankle!

JEWELS from JAMES (Choice devotional selections from  the works of John Angell James) Like a ball and chain around his ankle! "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the  sin which so easily besets you." Hebrews 12:1 Besetting sins are powerful hindrances to Christian progress. In the case of most people, there is some one sin to which, either from their situation, taste, constitution, or other circumstances—they are more powerfully tempted than to others. Satan knows very well what in every case this is, and skillfully adapts his temptations to it. He is an expert angler, and never chooses his bait, or throws his line, at random! Independently, however, of him, the very tendency of the heart is in that direction. That one sin, whatever it is, while indulged, will hold you back! You cannot make progress in holiness, until it is mortified. Even its partial indulgence, though it may be considerably weakened, will hinder you! Study then your situation, circumstances, and constitution. You cannot be ignorant which temptation and sin, you are most liable to succumb to. You must know in what way you have most frequently wounded your conscience, and occasioned to yourself shame and sorrow. Is it an unsanctified temper? Is it an impure imagination? Is it a proud heart? Is it a vain mind? Is it a taste for worldly company? Is it a proneness to envy and jealousy? Is it a love of money? Is it a tendency to exaggeration in speech? Is it a fondness for pleasure? Is it a disposition to censoriousness and backbiting? Study yourselves! Examine your own heart! You must find out this matter, and it requires no great pains in order to know it. It floats upon the surface of the heart, and does not lie hidden in its depths. There, there, is your danger! As long as that one sin, be it what it may, is indulged, you cannot advance in the Christian life! Other sins are like unnecessary clothing to the racer. Besetting sins are like a ball and chain around his ankle!