DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO

I’ve spent a lot of time pondering Romans 7. You know, it’s that passage where Paul reveals that he, like everyone else, is subject to the flesh.  In the 15^th verse he just lays it right out there when he says, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do.”

I love Paul for the encouragement I receive from knowing that I’m not the only one.

Of course, the reality is, every one of us is in that same boat. Paul goes on to talk about the flesh, which is the working arm of that counterfeit trinity that Satan set up (the world, the flesh, and the devil) being the real culprit. It’s always right there, isn’t it?

The flesh. Not my flesh. I don’t want anything to do with it, but it never gives up. And it has been my experience that it is always going to come after me when I set out to do what I want to do. That would be to follow the desire of my heart…the desire God has placed there.

When it’s moving in, I wish there was a sound track like in “Jaws” …..bum-bum…bum-bum….bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum….but no. There’s no fin rising up out of the water. Instead, the thoughts come disguised as my own thoughts…diverting my attention, voicing doubts about the wisdom or the outcome, or accusing me of wasting time. The list is long. The flesh has an inexhaustible arsenal.

I also think a lot about the other side of the equation—God giving me the desires of my heart. If you’ve ever heard me talk about all of the sudden wanting nothing more than to perform gospel music, after being stubbornly unwilling to even consider such a thing up until that very moment, then you know that I believe completely that He does exactly that. He gives us the desires of our heart. But I don’t think it’s just the big life-changing stuff.

I think that living in Christ is all about His Holy Spirit nudging us from within, toward all kinds of things that we interpret as plain old “wanting to” do this and that. And they seem to be mundane things far more often than big things. God’s got a reason, and we may likely never see the long-term outcome. But He’s God.  He can see the big picture.

Of course, when we set out to do that thing God has planted in our mind to….bum-bum….bum-bum….the flesh smells it like blood in the water, and there we are back to Romans 7…the things I want to do, I don’t do.

But there’s good news. The flesh isn’t a huge man-eating monster. It’s a bully, and you deal with it just like any other bully. Thank you, Jesus, for giving James the words, “resist the devil and he will flee from you.“

But this is important to see…you can’t resist the devil if you think it’s you. If you don’t recognize the flesh as the invasive parasite it is, then you’ll always find yourself not doing the things you want to do, and doing things you hate.

Today…for the next hour…for the next fifteen minutes…do what you want to do.