Romans 7:7-25

Be Still: Father help me as I read your Word. By your Spirit, I want to become more like Jesus today. Amen. 

Read: Romans 7:7-25

'What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!' (v24,25)

Encounter: Because we are a people of the Spirit, but still live in our flesh, our bodies become the battleground for a war of competing desires. In our passage today St Paul says, 'I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do'. 

In just five verses I’ve counted that Paul uses the word ‘do’ twenty times, which makes it quite a difficult passage of Scripture to follow. There is a war over what we human beings do, and we sense Paul's confusion over his own clash of desires. His frustration boils over in this passage when he exclaims, 'What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?' 

I imagine you can relate today to having competing dos and don'ts in your life and somehow not feeling in control. Paul’s worshipful reply to his own question is: 'Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!' The war of desires is very real, but so is Jesus’ deliverance. This is less about what we should do and more about what Jesus has done.    

Apply: Thank God today for his deliverance and rescue in Jesus Christ. At the Cross, Jesus has done everything to wash away your sins (past, present, and future). Bring to him now those patterns of sin or habits in your life that you would love to be free from. God wants you to be free. Thank him again for his deliverance. Every day you are being transformed into his likeness by the Holy Spirit in you. 

Devote: Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord. Set me free Lord. In Jesus’ name.