I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. —Romans 7:15
Have you experienced this pattern when you tried to make healthy changes? You can’t always make yourself do right. You want to, but you can’t. And when you try not to do the wrong thing, you do it anyway. Why does this happen?
We all have an old nature with deeply rooted habits still inside us. It loves to do those wrong things that have become routine for us.
We can’t break free of those habits on our own, and the apostle Paul went on to write, “Who will free me from slavery to this deadly lower nature?” Then he gives the answer, “Thank God, Christ Jesus has done it. He has set me free.”
In Romans 7, Paul uses the words “I, me, my” twenty-seven times. But in Romans 8 he uses the word “Spirit” nineteen times. That’s the difference between defeat and victory: trusting in “me” versus surrendering to the Holy Spirit.
Food for Thought: God’s Spirit is ready and waiting to break you free of old patterns and move a new direction
