Romans 7:13-25 NIV

Romans 7:13-25 NIV
¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 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.

There are days as a Christian that I feel unsaved.  I just don't act or do the things that I know are right and I crave and do the things that I should not.  Yet I gain encouragement from these words of Paul.  He fought the exact same battle that I struggle with.  Though we are dead to sin, our sin nature is still there and it desires to be fed. 

Habits are learned behaviors and take time to break.  The battle within in NORMAL.  Don't be discouraged.  Keep battling.


 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!
   So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

It is God who delivers us.  It is nothing that we do.

God Bless.