BIBLE READING FOR THE DAY:
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
--Romans 7:21-25
THOUGHT: One of the age-old debates of philosophy is whether man is basically good or basically evil... I'm not sure if it comes down to good or evil, but I definitely feel like part of me is really loving and caring and part of me is just a jerk... and life is lived in tension between the two. To say that all I am is bad (to just give in to self-condemnation) is to deny my true worth or lovability and value, but to say that all I am is good and loving is completely overglorified and-- well, definitely not always true.
This passage says that all of that bad is separate though-- the writer calls it the 'sinful nature'-- the part of us that is separated from God. He says, yes, we live in that tension, but it's not because I, myself, the real, whole, God-created me, am wretched or sinful or bad. It's because as long as I live in this world, I must wrestle with having sin live within me, just as it exists in the world in various systems. But it isn't me. Rather, I, me, my-God-created-self, am different and separate. And God sees that me-- the pure, whole, brand-new me, beautiful, lovely, good, and loving. All of that potential to be like God, to live in his image, is right there, inside me.
CHALLENGE: Today, don't let your mistakes, failings, or insufficiencies get you down. No matter how many times you fail or mess-up, don't despair. Always remember how good, and beautifully pure you are in God's eyes, made new any time you ask him to blink. =)
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