Romans 7:22-23 “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but 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.”
As Christians we have this internal battle constantly waging in us, struggling between the ways of the world and obeying God’s laws. Since the original sin we have always questioned God’s laws – “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden” (Gen. 3:1) The world has always tried to insert a gray area into God’s laws, the world loves the gray areas but God’s laws are black and white.
I was talking to a friend the other day, discussing things we are struggling with in our lives and how we were trying to apply God’s laws to our lives. My friend made a statement that shocked me a bit, “I know that God says it is wrong but He also knows everything I have been through and the things I am dealing with – so He understands.” I was stunned at first, just because we have had trials in our lives we are able to justify our continued sin?
After our conversation I decide to examine my own justifications and be more mindful of what I encounter on a daily basis. If God convicts us of something in our lives, He is not asking us to justify it as we would to one another; He is pointing out something in our lives that is keeping us from Him and we need to deal with it. We can justify anything, it is a great gift the world has given us… we see it everyday on the television – “got to get mine.” It is a tragic condition of our hearts that we are so hardened and resistant to God’s ways…
In Jeremiah 17:9 God tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” It is only by inviting God into our hearts that we are changed. God is continually working on us: as He reveals things to us, He wants us to change them and align with His will – not to “explain why” we continue to do them. He wants to know who we love more…
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