Doing Good

I always have the intention of doing “Good,” to be that man that God calls us all to be but I always seem to fall short. Each day I start with the intention of worshipping God through my actions and thoughts, through the words that come out of my mouth but seem to always fail in some area for some reason. Isn’t this also your experience? I was working through a Bible study and ran across a section of Romans that was labeled ‘The Problem of Sin in Us’ which was chapter 7 verses 13-25. I have a Holman CSB Bible but wanted a more “up-to-date” wording of this passage so I went to BibleGateway.com and found a translation called The Message which really opens up the true meaning of this passage and as I read The Message’s translation, I went back to a tradition format and the understanding of the scriptures really opened up. Each line of this passage speaks into the problem with sin in our lives.


In Romans 7:14-16 the passage reveals that God’s commands are necessary, Paul writes 'I can anticipate the response that is coming: "I know that all God's commands are spiritual, but I'm not. Isn't this also your experience?" Yes. I'm full of myself—after all, I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary.' I love this translation because how many times have we said that we are not going to do something and find ourselves doing that very thing. From my own experience, I was and am still in bondage in some ways to the desires of the flesh and sins power. I use to be angry with God and believed that He was testing me but I was correct of that thought by James 1:13-14, “…God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself doesn’t tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires."


Romans 7:17-20 lays out the battle that so many of us have with sin in our lives, 'But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.' I can remember so many earlier mornings when I would come home after a long night and think of how I wanted to stay sober for the night and didn’t; think of all the opportunities that I had to walk away but with the fear of being rejected by my friends I stayed and decided to participate in what I knew was wrong.


Romans 7:21-23 – 'It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.' Now before I accepted Christ into my life I wasn’t really living with the intent to serve God therefore I never noticed how much sin came in to trip me up and how it took charge in my life. We always hear that people want to be their self and be different from each other (this is a whole other subject) but when you get down to it there are only two choices; choose God or choose the world which is the desires of our flesh. When I accepted Christ in February of 2005 I started to really realized how much sin was there waiting to trip me up or I should say how much sin had taken control of my life.


Now Romans 7:24 really lays out where I was in my life before I choose God, 'I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?' I can remember one night having a moment of clarity while I was sitting on a couch at a pretty intense party. I had a revelation that I had become something that I had always said I wouldn’t become. It was at this moment that I think I really started not caring about life; this was the time in my life when I disconnected from family and close friends because I was ashamed at what I had become. I was at the end of my rope and it would be almost two years before I would find help.


Thank God, Thank God that He sent Jesus Christ! Romans 7:25 gives us the answer, 'The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.' When I accepted Jesus, truly accepted, all addictions went away almost as quickly as a storm clears after a tornado.


If you have read some of my previous entries you know that I have recently addressed the lust in my life; so by no means am I indicating that sin disappears when the acceptance of Jesus’ occurs. I am simply saying that it is easy to fall into a sinful lifestyle and for it to become the norm, when I was living a lifestyle that involved alcohol, drugs and sex it was easy and simple; it was the desires of my flesh taking control. The thing about sinning is that it is never satisfying so the urge for more grows. It doesn’t have to be alcohol or drugs; it can be as simple as gossiping and lying. For me it started when I was about 12 yrs old with a few simple glances at pornography.


Living in sin can mean so many different things to so many different people; the question is can we admit to our selves that we are a mess without God. Really it depends on where a person is at in their life or walk with Christ. It can be a junkie to a pastor, all people struggle with sin in their lives. We as a society tend to focus on the sins that are deemed major. The important thing to remember is that no matter where you are, no matter what your sin, not matter what you situation God is waiting and he will meet you where ever you are.