Moving Forward

“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

Have you ever felt these verses deep within yourself? I woke up this morning with this verse deep within my heart; I have a choice to choose life or death, God gives us a choice and calls us to choose Life (Deuteronomy 30:19) but so often I choose to go back to sin. I am reminded that no matter how far I have come I have so much farther to go.  I find that each day I need to be reminded of what I already have, for God to reveal more of Himself to me. I am comforted by the scriptures that sink deep into my heart for moments like these, verses like Romans 8:1-2 which remind me that there is therefore now no condemnation for me because I am in Him and He has overcome sin and death. I know that God wants to show me His love and if I continue to seek Him I will find Him if I seek Him with my whole heart! (Jeremiah 29:13)

So how can my heart which so often chooses the wrong way seek God with its entirety? Will it ever even be remotely possible? Should I hope for this or give up on it? Galatians 5:1 tells me that it is for freedom that Christ has set me free and I am to stand firm and not submit again to the yoke of slavery which sin ties me to. For so long I thought that was the end of the teaching, just don’t do it anymore, just turn from your sinful ways and walk in righteousness but what I found was I kept falling back into it. It’s easy to fall back when there isn't a complete teaching; you need the rest of the information, which is that we will make wrong choices and we do need to choose life and not go back into sin but the power to overcome sin and death, the ability to find freedom is only in Christ not in us.  The great thing is that because of our relationship with Him we now have a third of the Trinity living within us and that power is available to us. Ephesians 3:20 says God is able to do far more than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us, which is the Holy Spirit.

I mess up, I fall, I choose death where I should choose life but I have hope because of the power which is available to and at work within me.  I can only move forward without condemning myself and continuing to seek God because I know what His word says, I know truth and I know there is a power at work within me that is transforming me. Each day I can live in victory and on the days I don’t the grief doesn't have to overtake me.

So as I move forward and think of the truth laid before me in scripture I can hold onto the promises of God and know with full assurance that nothing I have done or will do changes Him, His love for me, or His truth. Though I may have woken up to a verse reminding me of how far I am from where I need to be I move forward through my day focusing on the truth of who God is and that I can trust His word and His promises.

“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” Numbers 23:19