Lesson 2 - One Who Knows

I woke up the other day very prayerful. In the quiet darkness of an early start I sought the Lord and He drew me close. Praises & petitions, overflowing from my grateful heart, pulsed through my voice; earnest petitions laid bare and vulnerable at His feet. I called on Him to give me strength for the day and to allow me to proclaim His victory to others. Assured and abounding … and then I arrived at work.

The storage room was flooded, the dirty towel bin overflowed, chefs informed me that not one but two pieces of equipment were not working and one of the needed employees had decided to just not show up!

Prayerfulness, and my desire to be Holy as He is Holy, quickly dissipated into ranting and raving. I wanted to respond right but I wanted to respond wrong. Know what I mean?

Paul sure did and told us about it in Romans 7 – “¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
and
“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.”

He even goes on further, giving wrenching words to what I know to be true of me – “²⁴What a wretched man I am! 

But, in the midst of that self-assault, in the condition he is in, and knowing the condition we would be in, he asks the question we all MUST ask is we seek after God – “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”

And then, in one of the most humbling, yet encouraging, statements written in all of Scripture, Paul reminds me, and all of you too, that there is help for even us – “²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

I didn't handle things well that morning, even with the very best preparations, but it is okay. It was not right; it was a failure. It was sinful, and I asked for forgiveness and repented; and you know what, I will stumble again, but He understands, and Paul understood, and gave us this passage so we would not lose heart through the failures and struggles; so don't.

Ponder this, meditate on it, let it sink in deeply. Then join me next time as we explore Romans 8 and the great “THEREFORE…”