The greatest obstacle between me and the life I seek is myself. This morning I was reminded of this, and the remedy.
“Surrender don’t come natural to me. I’d rather fight You for something I don’t really want, than to take what You give that I need. And I’ve beat my head against so many walls…now I’m falling down, I’m falling on my knees. And this Salvation Army band is playing this hymn. And Your grace rings out so deep, it makes my resistance seem so thin. You have been King of my glory, won’t You be my Prince of Peace?” (From the song “Hold Me Jesus” by Rich Mullins)
“The trouble is not with [God’s] 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!” (Romans 7:14-25)
