"For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do...
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present within me, but how to perform what is good I do not find...
O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
I thank God- through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Rom 7:15, 18, 24-25
Have you ever felt really frustrated because you can't seem to do things right? That no matter how you try you can't seem to obey God, you can't seem to overcome some struggle, you can't seem to fight some sin? I think we all have at some point. And we can take comfort in the fact that even the greatest apostle faced this problem -"For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do..." You can almost hear the frustration in his voice, perhaps even more clearly because you have at some point uttered the same words in the same way. I know I have, many a time.
"how to perform what is good I do not find..." Does this sum up how you feel? That you just don't know how to get it right? But hey, there is something that we can do. "...for to will is present within me...". If nothing else, if all our strength fails us, there is one thing we can do- to will. Not to will ourselves in submission, but rather, to surrender our will to God. To make it our conscious, earnest will and desirethat we will follow Him and seek Him first. You may ask, haven't I been doing that? But try this, and one day you may be surprised to look back and see that actually all the while you were holding back something from Him deep in your heart. A desire, a longing, a stubborness, an unwillingness to change. To will means to consciously surrender that- the deepest things that hold you back- to Him.
And what happens after we have done that? Hear Paul's victorious exclamation- "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God- through Jesus Christ our Lord!" God begins to work in us! And He works in ways that are so amazing that we would never have believed it. There were some things in my life that I thought I would never be able to overcome, sins and struggles that I was clueless about how to handle. Until I realised that I was holding back so much from the Lord, and thhat deep within me I did not really want to let Him work, and all that was keeping me from letting Him work in me. And when I slowly, with His help, began to let go, I saw Him working in my life once again, and my reaction was, "Wow Lord, you are working! Why was I ever so foolish to doubt!"
"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus..." Eph. 6:21
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present within me, but how to perform what is good I do not find...
O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
I thank God- through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Rom 7:15, 18, 24-25
Have you ever felt really frustrated because you can't seem to do things right? That no matter how you try you can't seem to obey God, you can't seem to overcome some struggle, you can't seem to fight some sin? I think we all have at some point. And we can take comfort in the fact that even the greatest apostle faced this problem -"For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do..." You can almost hear the frustration in his voice, perhaps even more clearly because you have at some point uttered the same words in the same way. I know I have, many a time.
"how to perform what is good I do not find..." Does this sum up how you feel? That you just don't know how to get it right? But hey, there is something that we can do. "...for to will is present within me...". If nothing else, if all our strength fails us, there is one thing we can do- to will. Not to will ourselves in submission, but rather, to surrender our will to God. To make it our conscious, earnest will and desirethat we will follow Him and seek Him first. You may ask, haven't I been doing that? But try this, and one day you may be surprised to look back and see that actually all the while you were holding back something from Him deep in your heart. A desire, a longing, a stubborness, an unwillingness to change. To will means to consciously surrender that- the deepest things that hold you back- to Him.
And what happens after we have done that? Hear Paul's victorious exclamation- "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God- through Jesus Christ our Lord!" God begins to work in us! And He works in ways that are so amazing that we would never have believed it. There were some things in my life that I thought I would never be able to overcome, sins and struggles that I was clueless about how to handle. Until I realised that I was holding back so much from the Lord, and thhat deep within me I did not really want to let Him work, and all that was keeping me from letting Him work in me. And when I slowly, with His help, began to let go, I saw Him working in my life once again, and my reaction was, "Wow Lord, you are working! Why was I ever so foolish to doubt!"
"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus..." Eph. 6:21
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