Journey or Struggle--How does my walk with Jesus look?
Romans 7:14-25 New International Version (NIV)
14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin
The Thought--As I struggled with Law (which in my life looked like Humanist Ethics) I thought I could overcome the world. I lived to a standard most people around me thought was AWESOME--a coach, teacher, wow...what a sacrifice I made for society. Oh yeah, btw, I did this all to lift up my own self-worth. When all the ethics failed and I fell into a depression because of the failure of my humanist beliefs, I struggled.
That is where Jesus met me in the summer of 1997. It took the entire Fall season of 1997 to convert and transform my heart, but I knew that no longer could I carry the burden of my sin.
Today I wonder what my students and others around me see--do they see my life as a journey of freedom in Christ or a struggle against the overwhelming law that I continue to seek. Just a thought...
14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin
The Thought--As I struggled with Law (which in my life looked like Humanist Ethics) I thought I could overcome the world. I lived to a standard most people around me thought was AWESOME--a coach, teacher, wow...what a sacrifice I made for society. Oh yeah, btw, I did this all to lift up my own self-worth. When all the ethics failed and I fell into a depression because of the failure of my humanist beliefs, I struggled.
That is where Jesus met me in the summer of 1997. It took the entire Fall season of 1997 to convert and transform my heart, but I knew that no longer could I carry the burden of my sin.
Today I wonder what my students and others around me see--do they see my life as a journey of freedom in Christ or a struggle against the overwhelming law that I continue to seek. Just a thought...
posted by Was at
1:07 PM
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