Daily Devotion
With Pastor Ancel Presnell
“I JUST KEEP MESSING UP”
Anyone that claims that the Christian life is easy either isn’t attempting to live for the Lord, or they are just totally naïve! Living the Christian life is rewarding, but it is not easy. Once we are saved, we have a new nature in Christ. The Holy Spirit resides within us as believers, but we also still deal with our flesh and all the tendencies that come along with it. This creates an inward battle.
The Holy Spirit living within us controls the new man and the new nature. The Holy Spirit instills within us a desire to please God and to do what is right according to God’s Holy Word. This is a mark of a true Christian. So, if this is true, why do we keep messing up?
Apostle Paul addressed this reality within his own personal life. I am going to paraphrase what Paul wrote in Romans 7:15, 16. Apostle Paul communicates in this passage the following: Why do I continue to do the things that I know not to do and the things that I know that I should do, I do not do! Man, oh man, does this not summarize the Christian life in a nutshell? We know to do what is right and we know what is right, and yet we continue to not do the things we should, and we practice the things that we should not. We just keep messing up!
Galatians 5:17—”17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Apostle Paul goes on to write in Romans 7:15 that he HATES the things that he does that he should not do. We can see the inner struggle and turmoil within Paul. We can identify with this inner struggle because all who know Christ as Savior is in this same struggle.
What is the culprit for this continual “messing up?” It is our Sin nature. Paul’s desire as a Christian was right and he had no lack of desire as a Christian to do what was right. Paul did not fail to do right out of ignorance; He had the Law of God pointing Him toward what was right and what was wrong; He had knowledge. Was his problem centered on making no attempt to do what was right? No, Paul tried with everything within him, but he kept messing up time and time again.
Paul concludes that the culprit of his “messing up” is SIN! His failing to do what was right and his continuing to do what was wrong was not derivative of his new nature in Christ, but rather, it was Sin. Dear child of God, you are forgiven both past, present, and future. The desire within you to do what is right is not your good nature; It is the spirit of God within you. Your inability to continually do what you should and your inability to stop breaking God’s commands is a direct result of our sinful nature in the flesh. This is why we need Christ! Praise God for the atoning sacrifice of our Savior!
