The Dilemma ~ God's Way or My Way
“So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.” - Romans 7:14-25 NLT
Sometimes as Believers, we find ourselves in the midst of dilemma:
Should I stay or should I go?
Should I laugh at that joke or just walk away?
This job or that job?
Staying in bed or rolling back over and going back to sleep?
Telling the truth or telling “just a little lie” to ourselves and/or others?
To sin or not to sin
To sin or not to sin..... that is the question. That is the dilemma.
Paul seemingly wonders aloud in today’s text, “Why do I do the things that I don’t want to do, and don’t do the things that I want to?”
We often wonder the same things. Rarely do we truly plan to sin, though that does happen and comes out of our personal desires outweighing the truth and direction of God... at least for that moment in time.
And that tends to be the same truth in those moments when we are faced with the “God’s way or my way” dilemma.
God’s way says “flee evil”... My way is drawn toward it
God’s way says put on the full armor... My way says “what could it hurt?”
God’s way has a higher calling, a higher purpose... My way is all about me and the now.
And thus, the dilemmas that we find ourselves in... God’s way or my way... or sometimes, somewhere in between - which ultimately is still my way, and not God’s.
When we compromise and do something other that God’s desire, it’s still sin, it’s still “all about me.”
Today, I pray that our desire becomes choosing God’s way, God’s principles, God’s direction. Today, I pray that we choose Jesus, “the way and the truth and the life.”
Keep the Faith... Carpe Diem.
Photo by Dusty Doddridge
