The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7:15, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” Even he had the same problem we all face – our flesh, temptations, and our selfish desires to deal with. And as a human, he like all of us – made wrong choices.
I feel sometimes people look at my life and think, “wow…I wish I had it all together like he does!”. But, nothing could be further from the truth. I don’t have it “all together”. I make wrong choices, give into temptation, and follow the desires of my flesh too often as we all do. I’m human. I DO strive to live right, to follow Jesus, to obey His Word, and to be a Light in this world. However, I’m not near perfect, and I sometimes do what I know is wrong, even knowing the outcome won’t be good, simply because I’m just too tired, or I’ve had a rough day, or because of some other reason or excuse.
The thing is, when I do make wrong choices and wrong decisions, it doesn’t take long before I realize, “Joshua, you shouldn’t have done that!”, and I know life isn’t going to be too much fun until I confess it, make the necessary changes, and get my life back on the right track.
The worst times in my life, where I’ve just felt miserable inside, are because I’ve selfishly chosen to make the wrong decisions. And ALL of the best times in my life, where I’ve felt awesome inside, are when I’ve purposefully chosen to obey God, and follow Him. I’ve ALWAYS found that when I think I can do things on my own, and I don’t need to follow His commandments, I make GREAT mistakes, and I mess things up. He IS GOD! He knows what is right….I’m not sure why that is so hard for us to learn sometimes.
It’s NOT always easy to follow Jesus and do what is right. It’s NOT always easy to turn the other cheek when people are mean or hateful to us. It’s NOT always easy to put others first in our life, especially when we don’t think they deserve it. It’s NOT always easy to let God completely control EVERY part of our life, when we want different things than He knows are best for us. It’s NOT always easy. But, God never promised it would be easy. He simply promised that He would be with us, and we could find IN HIM everything we need.