Today at church the message was about the inadequacy of everyone in Christ’s family. The idea was that we are all inadequate but made new by being adopted into Christ’s family and coming together in that. Now the big deal for me is this: I am inadequate. I know this. I feel it. It sucks. But I don’t feel the second part about being made new and all that. All I feel is like I’ll never make it. I think there must be SOMETHING that I’m royally missing. Some point that I just haven’t understood or picked up. But that’s just how I feel…
Romans 7 – 8
I really like when it talks about how when we’re alive we live by the law, but since in our hearts we have died and been risen new in Christ we are now dead to that law and are free to follow his law and live by that alone because we obey what we belong to and we now belong to Christ and so are free to obey him. (woaw – long sentence…)
“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do– this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Romans 7: 18-20
Then it goes on to talk about the inner war we all face between God’s will in us and the evil that is ever-present.
I’m sure we all know what this is like and I’m really sorry if this is boring because I’m just reiterating it for the moment but I definitely identify with this and don’t know what the answer is to all this. In Romans 8 it talks about how we are all saved because of the sacrifice that God made through Jesus it and I understand all this about “The mind of the sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace…” (Romans 8 : 6) My problem is how to get from point A to point B…. I just don’t feel at peace. And really, a part of me just feels like a whiner… Like I should just buck up and deal with it…. but how?! I MUST BE MISSING SOMETHING! I just don’t know what the deal is or how to get it….
Once again, I’m really sorry if this came out as a reiteration of what I read or just whininess or both…. I just don’t know how to do it any other way at the moment.
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Jones,
I understand the feeling. In beginning a relationship with God, we are faced with a had truth: we are supposed to trust in a God we can’t see.
But the point of Romans 8 is this: Once you are saved, you are saved because of the Security of the Spirit. Notice that the Holy Spirit is mentioned at least 17 times in one chapter. That’s definitely a huge portion of the chapter! Paul started off in Romans 1-3 telling you WHY you needed to be saved. In chapters 4-5 he tells you HOW you are saved. In Romans 6-7, he tells you about some truths that are true of you BECAUSE you are saved. Now in chapter 8, he continues to do the same thing, but this time He brings in the Holy Spirit and His role in our liveds as Christians. The problem that we experience is that we don’t readily accept these things as truth. We go through life learning that we have to “earn” our grades, allowances, even spouses (if you’re married). But the reality is, that once you “believe and are justified by faith” then God now makes new things true of us. Remember, lean on faith, not on feeling. Feelings come and go, but faith is a continual trust.
Also, notice how Romans 6: 11 uses the verb “consider.” In other words, “accept this as true.” If you haven’t trusted in Christ, then you can’t do it. If you have then you can. Christians have to be better at “accepting this as true.” Or we are going to be defeated and discouraged by Satan. God is too awesome not to be taken at His word. Simple faith.
Faith is a continual trust….
I like that. Thanks.