Scarcely a day goes by without a struggle between what I want to do and what I nally end up doing. I face an ongoing battle with my sinful nature. God’s awareness of my struggle
makes it all the worse. God knows.
God knows who we are, and we allow people to know who
we are as well. Yet, don’t we fear showing our dark side? We tend to hide our weaknesses and sinful selves from others. And while the voice of our sin is strong, the voice of God’s forgive- ness is stronger.
Paul does not address evildoers; he speaks to good, consci- entious Christians who, despite their best intentions, fall prey to sin. As we often say, “The spirit is willing, but the esh is weak.” We face the divide between willing and doing, and that is part of our human condition. God does not encourage dwell- ing on sin; God invites us to experience a new heart and a new spirit. “Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! . . . I have no pleasure in the death of anyone. . . . Turn, then, and live” (Ezek. 18:31-32).
Nothing we do can overcome sin’s power; that task falls to God who has accomplished it through Jesus Christ. We can- not escape our sinful nature, but God can take all our mixed motives, good or evil intentions and turn them to divine service.
Henry Nouwen taught that “we can carry in our heart all human pain and sorrow, all con icts and agonies . . . because God’s heart has become one with ours.” And as Paul reminds us so eloquently in Romans 8:39, nothing in creation “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”