Today's Passage:  Romans 7

I find great comfort in the end of chapter 7.  Where many times Paul writes with such poetry and beauty, the end of 7 kind of feels like a jumbled mess...exactly the way Paul must have felt when he wrote it. 

"What do I do?", Paul asks.  "I know what I should be doing....I know what's right.  But there is a part of me that longs to do the very things I know I shouldn't do!  I hate it when I allow sin to take control over my life again and lead me to things and places I know I shouldn't go.  It's like my mind, my heart and my body are at war...the innermost part of me longs for holiness, but I'm still drawn to the things of this world.  What a wretched man I am!"

Who among us hasn't been right there with Paul?  We know the good we should be doing but we choose the things of the world.  We know we should be avoiding the sin of the world, but it continues to draw us back the moment we let our guard down.  And when we fail, we fall right back into old feelings of guilt that keep us from living in the freedom of Christ.

Who will save us from this?  Thanks be to God...our Lord Jesus Christ!  He continues to make me more like Him and refines me when I am not.  He has rescued me from the punishment of the law and led me to life.  As long as I live in this world, I will struggle with the desires of sin...but one day I will be perfected in His presence!