Living Free From Our Failures

Some of the most comforting words in the Bible are these:

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 7:21-25

If we are honest there’s a struggle that goes on in each of our lives to not only know what is right but to actually carry it out. We may do well in one area only to fall short in another. We may live in a positive way one day only to find ourselves living well below the bar on the next.  We may manage to paste a smile on our face and say things in a relatively measured way, but underneath we can be seething with anger and resentment.

It’s not that we don’t want to do and think what’s right and have attitudes to match. We all do. It’s that life is hard and people around us are as broken as we are and make as many stupid mistakes as we do. Especially when those mistakes impact our lives, we find it difficult to live above the circumstances.

So if that’s the case, why would I consider the description of these ugly conditions to be something in which I find comfort?

God‘s good news for us today is that there is in fact a way to live free.

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 … 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.

Romans 8:1–3

Loving God, we do want to live free from our brokenness and sinfulness. We thank you that even though it’s hopeless to try to do that on our own, when You come to live in us, You empower us to live free from things that would otherwise control us.

We surrender ourselves again today to the voice and direction of the Holy Spirit and ask you, Loving God, to live out this amazing truth in us, that together with you we can follow your good agenda rather than being tripped up by our sinful nature. Amen

Let’s joyfully live in that freedom today.  Have a great day.