“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” – Romans 7:15 (ESV)
Can you relate? How many times this week, this day, or even this hour could you say this about yourself?
Here in Romans 7 Paul reveals a struggle that he faces, and I believe that every person who has read this letter since can relate in some way to his vulnerable confession. What Paul is expressing is common to every believer, because we all know what it is like for our actions to contradict our desires.
“We are all creatures with mixed emotions. We are never left with only one desire working in our hearts of in our minds.” – R.C. Sproul
Sproul does a great job of identifying the grand tug-a-war in our minds. At any given time we have desires in our minds that attempt to move us to action, and often these desires are contradictory and in competition with each other. We have a desire to pray more consistently, but our desire for more sleep keeps us snuggled under our covers well after our alarm has gone off. We desire to get healthy, but our desire to eat certain kinds of foods keep us coming back for more and more. We desire to spend more time with our kids, but our desire to please the people that we work with keeps us late at work time and time again. These desires often feel like a tug-a-war, pushing and pulling us in different directions. It would be easy if we had but one desire (and one day, when we see Him face to face, we will experience what it is like to have but one desire), but the truth is that every decision we make in this life is made with differing desires competing for our allegiance.
I want to share four truths to encourage you in your tug-a-war today:
Your standing in Christ is not based on you. The gospel is not what you do, but what He did. In the midst of your struggle, His grace prevails. This is massively important because when we fail, the work of Christ hasn’t. For those who know and follow Christ, rest always in the fact that God loves you, and through His Son you are declared righteous… even when sin wins the tug-a-war match for a decision in your mind.
Deny yourself daily. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) Don’t miss the word, “daily.” Daily means that this is an ongoing, continual, repetitive process, and not a one-time event. Jesus took up his cross once for all time, and He has called His followers to a daily commitment to deny themselves, to take up their cross, and to follow him. This means that you be engaged in this tug-a-war daily until the moment you see Him face to face.
Connect yourself with a Christian Community. Community can be a powerful tool for good or evil. We understand this when we talk to our children about the dangers of peer pressure, right? We can either be brought up or down by the people around us. Tim Keller says it well, “You can’t live the Christian life without a band of Christian friends, without a family of believers in which you find a place.” Find people who will build you up, encourage you, and offer you strength when you feel weak. There is nothing like getting some extra muscle in your tug-a-war battles.
Get back up. If you have ever played tug-a-war, you most likely know the terrible feeling of being pulled down by the other team. Similarly, if you have followed Christ for any amount of time, you also know this feeling. This is exactly the feeling that Paul is identifying in this text. The reality is that you will fail and you will fall. Just like Paul in this passage, there will be days when you look back and say, “I did what I didn’t want to do.” And, in these moments, praise God for His grace that surrounds broken people. So Get back up. Get back up, regain your footing, grab the rope, and start pulling again.