The faulty wheel on my shopping cart pulled hard to the left as if it had a mind of its own. I determined I was too far into my shopping experience to walk all the way back to the cart corral for a replacement so I struggled my way through the entire store. It is nothing short of a miracle I made it out without causing bodily harm to another patron or without knocking over a store display.
My sin nature is the same way, often pulling hard in its own direction. When left without confrontation, it will steer me off path and is sure to cater to my flesh and cause destruction wherever I go.
I’ve spent the week with a faulty shopping cart! I’ve allowed my sin nature to do some veering off on its own. I’ve felt frustrated, been impatient, dented relationships and struggled with a lot of negative thinking. Paul’s words below remind me, I am not alone.
19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now 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.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7: 19-25 (NIV)
Friend, if you can relate to my week, let’s keep both hands on the cart and push on together! Thankful for a God who will rescue! Thanks be to God!
Copyright©2017, Gloria Stucky
Photo by Kai Oberhauser: Unsplash.com