Questionable Decisions

For I know that in me (That is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.  For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but  the evil I will not to do,  that I practice.
Romans 7: 18-19 NKJV

There are two things we can take away from this revelation from the apostle Paul.  First, we all know the good things we should be doing, secondly, we don't do it!  Wait, this is a apostle of Jesus who is making this admission.  It seems that ol' Paul had struggles with making bad decisions as well.  What I find encouuraging about this passage is that just because we make bad decisions, we're not condemned by Jesus by  any means.  We wouldn't usually see Paul as a man of questionable decisions, but now we have his own admission.  However, before we all hit that "Aha!" moment, take a look at verse 18 of this example.  Paul states that within him, in his FLESH, that NOTHING good dwells.  Well  duh!  There are plenty of places in scripture where our flesh is described as wicked.  Obviously, Paul knew the difference between what was good and what was wrong behavior.  After all, before his conversion he had been someone pretty high up in the Jewish faith.
I'll jump out on a limb here and admit that I've made more than a few wrong decisions.  Big surprise huh?  I'm sure I've got plenty of company in that respect.  I used to beat myself up daily for those decisions and behaviors that I knew were wrong yet still engaged in.  How good of a christian could I be if I couldn't resist these temptations?  This was a daily struggle for me.  See, what I was being taught on Sunday was that if I experienced these struggles, that I was spiritualy weak and I needed to pray for Gods forgiveness daily.  There were times that I felt like I was the only one who was having these struggles.  Since God and sin go together like oil and water, how could he love me if I was having these struggles?  Somewhere, somehow, there was something wrong with me!  Yes, there was definately something wrong with me.  There was just something wrong with my way of thinking, NOT with me personaly.  See, God hadn't withdrawn the free gift he had given to me just because of my bad decisions.  The blood of Jesus that was shed for me on that cross had taken care of my sins long ago.  Yes, my sins past, present AND future are covered.  Does that sound like I God needs us to ask for his forgiveness each day?  I suggest that instead we should pray and THANK God for the selfless sacrafice of his son on our behalf.  I find it encouraging that one of the greatest defenders of the gospel in history faced the same struggles as I do.

~Scott~