Prayer – Lord, I love You with all of my heart. I want to please You and yet like Paul I just don’t do what I know is right. Please forgive me Lord…and set me straight.
So the trouble is not with the law, for it is
spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to
sin. I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I
don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is
wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing
wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives
in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can't. I
want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I
do it anyway. But if I do what I don't want to do, I am not really the one
doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this
principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is
wrong. I love God's law with all my heart. But there is another power within me
that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is
still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this
life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus
Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's
law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. Romans 7:14-25
Meditate. Consider freedom from sinfulness.
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| Do you feel like you just touched a cactus? Miserable. There is an answer. It is Jesus. Cactus in the Utah desert. |
I want to do what is right and good…but I don’t…I can’t. My
sinful nature makes me a slave to sin.
Did you note that Paul has a solution—an answer to that
feeling of being a slave to sin—as well as to the anxiety in our lives. The
answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. God sent His pure and sinless Son to be
the sacrifice for our sin.
So now there is no
condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to
him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin
that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the
weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent
his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God
declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for
our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully
satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the
Spirit. Romans 8:1-4
Seems simple doesn’t it. Just accept Jesus as your Savior.
He has already taken the sins of mankind to the cross two thousand years ago.
The catch is that each person has to respond personally by repenting of their
sins and accepting what Jesus has done for them. He will release each individual from that power of that
sin in their life. When a person is in an ongoing relationship with Jesus, their
sinful nature is continually being set free. There you go…Jesus is the answer
for Paul and for us.
Verse of Salvation ~ For the kind of sorrow God wants us
to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There's no
regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance,
results in spiritual death. 2 Corinthians 7:10
© 2023 Text, photos, and illustrations by Mickey M. Hunacek. All
rights reserved.
All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless
otherwise noted.
New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale
House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream,
Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Biblical search from Blue Letter Bible - http://v3.blueletterbible.org/search.cfm.
Books by Mickey M.
Hunacekre
Available as e-books or paperbacks at Amazon.com
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