(NOTE: TODAY’S POST IS A CONTINUATION OF YESTERDAY’S. TO START AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS ESSAY, SCROLL DOWN TO PART 1 AND MOVE UP FROM THERE.)
2. By stubbornly insisting that change can be wrought through sheer force of will, we may miss other ways that our problems can or should be solved.
As you probably know, one of the first steps in my book, The House That Cleans Itself , is for you to admit that if you struggle in this area, you are probably never going to change your behaviors and thus must change your house instead. Implementing the HTCI plan really does eliminate mess and clutter and allow you to keep the place continually clean with so much less effort that sometimes it almost feels as if the house is cleaning itself. (Hence the title.) So which would you rather have: even more years of good intentions, failed resolutions, and continued mess, or a house that stays pretty clean much of the time? My vote is for the latter, of course.
Here’s another example to support this reason for why I'm against New Years Resolutions. “Catherine” was a smart girl who was a B and C student for most of her life despite hard work and very good intentions. Known to her friends as a major airhead, Catherine was forever bringing in her homework late, finishing huge assignments then forgetting to turn them in at all, showing up for class and learning to her surprise that she had a test that day, and so on. Because she wasn’t hyperactive and presented no behavior problems, Catherine had never been evaluated for learning disabilities or neurological disorders.
Her parents began to suspect that something more than mere forgetfulness was going on, however, so they pursued testing for their daughter. In the end, Catherine was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder/Inattentive Type. (The same kind I have.) They decided to try medication, and though it took some time to find the right drug and dosage, to say that her diagnosis and subsequent treatment changed her life is a gross understatement. These days, Catherine’s parents cannot believe that their competent, organized, efficient daughter is the same absentminded, foggy, airheaded girl from before. They love to share this shocking fact: She started taking the correct medication at the beginning of the 11th grade, and her grades grew so consistently high that she has made the Honor Roll (in high school) and the Dean’s List (in college) every single semester since. Now a junior in college, she continues to make almost all A’s every semester while holding down a full class schedule and a part time job as well. If her parents hadn’t looked beyond the need for mere self-discipline and willpower to solve her problems, Catherine’s story would no doubt have unfolded quite differently.
Had Catherine or her parents looked only to “doing better” and “trying harder”, they would have missed the bigger issue here, not to mention its solution.
BE SURE TO COME BACK TOMORROW FOR THE NEXT PORTION OF THIS ESSAY.
Sunday
The Resolution Revolution, Part 7
(NOTE: TODAY’S POST IS A CONTINUATION OF YESTERDAY’S. TO START AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS ESSAY, SCROLL DOWN TO PART 1 AND MOVE UP FROM THERE.)
So, why am I against New Years Resolutions? I’ll give you six reasons.
1. In my opinion, many resolutions are actually counter-productive when it comes to affecting true and lasting change.
Resolutions can lead us to believe that all we really need in order to make substantial changes in our lives are willpower and determination. In many cases, this simply isn’t true, nor is it even possible.
When we have problems that stem from a general lack of self discipline and willpower, the prevailing belief is that we just need to try harder or dig deeper and eventually we’ll succeed. Year after year, we make resolutions about this very thing, certain that through sheer force of will things might finally be different, that this year somehow we will find it within ourselves to do the very thing we’ve never been able to do before.
Unfortunately, this belief that “if we dig deep enough we’ll find it” is inherently flawed; such a search is almost always futile. The real truth is that if you lack self-discipline, you are never going to be able to dredge it up from within, no matter how badly you want it to be there. You may desire desperately to change, you may try valiantly to change, but if you have no self discipline inside of you in the first place, you can’t make it happen through sheer force of will.
That doesn’t mean you need to give up hope. A certain amount of discipline and willpower can be learned. The process happens not by dredging it up from within but rather by bringing it into ourselves from the outside—through accountability, structure, and more. Slowly, as we subject ourselves to this process of growth and change, we learn to integrate externally-imposed limits until we are able to implement internally-imposed limits as well.
This sounds confusing, but renowned author and psychologist Henry Cloud explains it fully in his book Changes That Heal , which I highly recommend. Even better is a related talk he gives called “Changing What Never Seems to Change.” Click here to see how you can hear it. This one talk is worth its weight in gold, but you can get it for just $10 on CD. (I don’t make anything from this, I just really love this talk and highly recommend it!)
If your resolutions, like mine, haven’t been much more than echoes of previous years, you need to hear what Dr. Cloud has to say on the topic of change!
BE SURE TO COME BACK TOMORROW FOR THE NEXT PORTION OF THIS ESSAY.
So, why am I against New Years Resolutions? I’ll give you six reasons.
1. In my opinion, many resolutions are actually counter-productive when it comes to affecting true and lasting change.
Resolutions can lead us to believe that all we really need in order to make substantial changes in our lives are willpower and determination. In many cases, this simply isn’t true, nor is it even possible.
When we have problems that stem from a general lack of self discipline and willpower, the prevailing belief is that we just need to try harder or dig deeper and eventually we’ll succeed. Year after year, we make resolutions about this very thing, certain that through sheer force of will things might finally be different, that this year somehow we will find it within ourselves to do the very thing we’ve never been able to do before.
Unfortunately, this belief that “if we dig deep enough we’ll find it” is inherently flawed; such a search is almost always futile. The real truth is that if you lack self-discipline, you are never going to be able to dredge it up from within, no matter how badly you want it to be there. You may desire desperately to change, you may try valiantly to change, but if you have no self discipline inside of you in the first place, you can’t make it happen through sheer force of will.
That doesn’t mean you need to give up hope. A certain amount of discipline and willpower can be learned. The process happens not by dredging it up from within but rather by bringing it into ourselves from the outside—through accountability, structure, and more. Slowly, as we subject ourselves to this process of growth and change, we learn to integrate externally-imposed limits until we are able to implement internally-imposed limits as well.
This sounds confusing, but renowned author and psychologist Henry Cloud explains it fully in his book Changes That Heal , which I highly recommend. Even better is a related talk he gives called “Changing What Never Seems to Change.” Click here to see how you can hear it. This one talk is worth its weight in gold, but you can get it for just $10 on CD. (I don’t make anything from this, I just really love this talk and highly recommend it!)
If your resolutions, like mine, haven’t been much more than echoes of previous years, you need to hear what Dr. Cloud has to say on the topic of change!
BE SURE TO COME BACK TOMORROW FOR THE NEXT PORTION OF THIS ESSAY.
Saturday
The Resolution Revolution, Part 6
(NOTE: TODAY’S POST IS A CONTINUATION OF YESTERDAY’S. TO START AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS ESSAY, SCROLL DOWN TO PART 1 AND MOVE UP FROM THERE.)
After meditating on these passages, I began to gain a whole new perspective about my past failures. First, I understood that my natural inclinations were likely never going to go away, that my behaviors (or sin nature) would always be in conflict with my intentions (my Spirit-led nature). No matter how many New Years Resolutions I made, no matter how hard I tried, these tendencies were more than likely not going to disappear—barring some superempirical occurance, of course, which could happen but wasn’t likely to.
Next, I understood that if I focused on the Holy Spirit and allowed Him to lead me regardless, I was going to be filled with peace. Letting the Spirit lead would bring me out from under a dark cloud and able to embrace a life “spacious and free”—no matter what my immediate surroundings looked like or whether or not I had managed to conquer all of my faults and challenges.
Then, I had to quit thinking I could handle these things by myself, to stop obsessing on them year after failed year. Instead, I was to turn my eyes heavenward, toward God and wherever He wanted me to go. As I did that, the Spirit would provide me with encouragement and strength, Christ’s love would flow into me (and through me to others), and He would even bring good from my flaws and sufferings.
Finally, I understood what had been tripping me up all along. By thinking that with the help of a few good resolutions I could change my very nature, I had actually been denying God’s truth, ignoring the Spirit within me, and allowing myself and my family to flounder in that dead-ended place of what Paul called self-focused obsession.
Deeply humbled, I made a renewed commitment to God, inviting His Spirit to fill me, lead me, intercede for me, comfort me, change me, and more. Barring some superempirical transformation, I knew that my various shortcomings would continue to be a challenge for me. But because I could finally see those shortcomings for exactly what they were—evidence of the sin nature that Christ Himself conquered on the cross—I was able to adjust my priorities and my focus, allowing the Spirit to move to the forefront of my life. If He really did have things for me to do and places for me to go, I wanted to be ready, whether my closets were a mess or not!
Given the choice, of course, I would’ve loved to have been delivered immediately from my whole list of shortcomings. This didn’t happen, but at least I was no longer so arrogant as to think such a deliverance could be achieved outside the realm of God’s power, that it was something that I could accomplish purely through my own efforts and determination. True, I still might someday be granted complete deliverance. But until then, I knew that the sooner I admitted to myself that this was who I was and likely always would be at my very core, the sooner I would get on with God’s work rather than my own.
That didn’t mean, however, that from there on out I could simply ignore these persistent issues of a messy home, mismanaged time, or poor health, etc. Those issues were having such an impact on my day-to-day existence that they still needed to be faced somehow. But now that I knew I wasn’t going to “fix” them simply by trying harder, I realized that an entirely new problem-solving mindset was required. Thus, I asked myself these two key questions:
To my very core, I felt like the answer to both questions was yes. Thus, finally, I started down an entirely new path, one of seeking out “work-arounds” for my various issues while also enlisting some real expertise to see what of my own nature could be changed. Through it all, I kept at the forefront of my mind the big picture truths I had learned about all of this: God loved me regardless! Jesus died for me regardless! The Spirit was ready to use me now—regardless! Everything else was beside the point. As a Christian, I had no right to postpone His work until I had my life in perfect order, which was something that was never going to happen anyway.
And so, with the Spirit fully front and center of my life for the first time in a long time, I embarked on a dual journey of practical problem-solving and personal transformation. For the problem-solving part of my journey, I first stripped out all emotion—frustration, embarrassment, dejection, etc.—from the issues and tried to look at them dispassionately instead. I did a lot of thinking, sketching, planning, almost like a builder faced with a very difficult plot of land who figures out how to build there anyway. Soon, I realized that I was also kind of like a detective, studying clues and examining evidence in my search for the truth.
The personal transformation side of things was much more difficult but also incredibly eye-opening. I began by seeking out wise counsel, including that of my pastor, my doctor, my friends, my family, and especially my husband, who is one of the wisest and most compassionate men I have ever known. I attended a life-changing conference (Lose it for Life, which you can learn about here), worked with a therapist to overcome a lifetime of misconceptions and bad thought patterns, joined Celebrate Recovery for help in dealing with my food addiction, joined a gym, read and implemented some excellent books such as Changes That Heal
and Seven Keys to Spiritual Renewal
, secured a medical diagnosis and subsequent treatment for Attention Deficit Disorder, and so on.
On this journey, I learned a whole lot about individual natures, good and bad habits, self discipline, spiritual maturity, weight loss, metabolism, housekeeping, personal impairments, transformation, sanctification, and much more. I did change in some substantial ways, yes, both inside and out, including taking off a good bit of weight and incorporating some very healthy habits that I have maintained to this day. I also figured out some great work-arounds for some of my biggest problems, especially my messy house. By accepting that my behaviors were never going to change in that area, I realized that I would need to change my house instead—thus the House That Cleans Itself system was born.
Time and again throughout this process, I realized that I was a living, breathing example of the Serenity Prayer: accepting the things that I couldn’t change about myself, changing the things I could, and learning to recognize the difference.
In the end, I came to understand that had I not gone through this process and found various ways to fix the issues that dominated my life, I would have spent the rest of my years drowning in my own good intentions, my lack of self discipline, and my mountains of clutter, lost opportunities, and neglected health. Worst of all, the Spirit would have remained pushed off to one side, called on for occasional help but otherwise relegated to yet another undone to-do list of good intentions.
BE SURE TO COME BACK TOMORROW FOR THE NEXT PORTION OF THIS ESSAY.
After meditating on these passages, I began to gain a whole new perspective about my past failures. First, I understood that my natural inclinations were likely never going to go away, that my behaviors (or sin nature) would always be in conflict with my intentions (my Spirit-led nature). No matter how many New Years Resolutions I made, no matter how hard I tried, these tendencies were more than likely not going to disappear—barring some superempirical occurance, of course, which could happen but wasn’t likely to.
Next, I understood that if I focused on the Holy Spirit and allowed Him to lead me regardless, I was going to be filled with peace. Letting the Spirit lead would bring me out from under a dark cloud and able to embrace a life “spacious and free”—no matter what my immediate surroundings looked like or whether or not I had managed to conquer all of my faults and challenges.
Then, I had to quit thinking I could handle these things by myself, to stop obsessing on them year after failed year. Instead, I was to turn my eyes heavenward, toward God and wherever He wanted me to go. As I did that, the Spirit would provide me with encouragement and strength, Christ’s love would flow into me (and through me to others), and He would even bring good from my flaws and sufferings.
Finally, I understood what had been tripping me up all along. By thinking that with the help of a few good resolutions I could change my very nature, I had actually been denying God’s truth, ignoring the Spirit within me, and allowing myself and my family to flounder in that dead-ended place of what Paul called self-focused obsession.
Deeply humbled, I made a renewed commitment to God, inviting His Spirit to fill me, lead me, intercede for me, comfort me, change me, and more. Barring some superempirical transformation, I knew that my various shortcomings would continue to be a challenge for me. But because I could finally see those shortcomings for exactly what they were—evidence of the sin nature that Christ Himself conquered on the cross—I was able to adjust my priorities and my focus, allowing the Spirit to move to the forefront of my life. If He really did have things for me to do and places for me to go, I wanted to be ready, whether my closets were a mess or not!
Given the choice, of course, I would’ve loved to have been delivered immediately from my whole list of shortcomings. This didn’t happen, but at least I was no longer so arrogant as to think such a deliverance could be achieved outside the realm of God’s power, that it was something that I could accomplish purely through my own efforts and determination. True, I still might someday be granted complete deliverance. But until then, I knew that the sooner I admitted to myself that this was who I was and likely always would be at my very core, the sooner I would get on with God’s work rather than my own.
That didn’t mean, however, that from there on out I could simply ignore these persistent issues of a messy home, mismanaged time, or poor health, etc. Those issues were having such an impact on my day-to-day existence that they still needed to be faced somehow. But now that I knew I wasn’t going to “fix” them simply by trying harder, I realized that an entirely new problem-solving mindset was required. Thus, I asked myself these two key questions:
• Are there any work-arounds to these issues that would allow me to change the situations even if I can’t change myself?
• Is there a way—through fervent prayer, the expertise of others, counseling, etc.—to bring about at least some change within myself in these areas after all?
To my very core, I felt like the answer to both questions was yes. Thus, finally, I started down an entirely new path, one of seeking out “work-arounds” for my various issues while also enlisting some real expertise to see what of my own nature could be changed. Through it all, I kept at the forefront of my mind the big picture truths I had learned about all of this: God loved me regardless! Jesus died for me regardless! The Spirit was ready to use me now—regardless! Everything else was beside the point. As a Christian, I had no right to postpone His work until I had my life in perfect order, which was something that was never going to happen anyway.
And so, with the Spirit fully front and center of my life for the first time in a long time, I embarked on a dual journey of practical problem-solving and personal transformation. For the problem-solving part of my journey, I first stripped out all emotion—frustration, embarrassment, dejection, etc.—from the issues and tried to look at them dispassionately instead. I did a lot of thinking, sketching, planning, almost like a builder faced with a very difficult plot of land who figures out how to build there anyway. Soon, I realized that I was also kind of like a detective, studying clues and examining evidence in my search for the truth.
The personal transformation side of things was much more difficult but also incredibly eye-opening. I began by seeking out wise counsel, including that of my pastor, my doctor, my friends, my family, and especially my husband, who is one of the wisest and most compassionate men I have ever known. I attended a life-changing conference (Lose it for Life, which you can learn about here), worked with a therapist to overcome a lifetime of misconceptions and bad thought patterns, joined Celebrate Recovery for help in dealing with my food addiction, joined a gym, read and implemented some excellent books such as Changes That Heal
and Seven Keys to Spiritual Renewal, secured a medical diagnosis and subsequent treatment for Attention Deficit Disorder, and so on.On this journey, I learned a whole lot about individual natures, good and bad habits, self discipline, spiritual maturity, weight loss, metabolism, housekeeping, personal impairments, transformation, sanctification, and much more. I did change in some substantial ways, yes, both inside and out, including taking off a good bit of weight and incorporating some very healthy habits that I have maintained to this day. I also figured out some great work-arounds for some of my biggest problems, especially my messy house. By accepting that my behaviors were never going to change in that area, I realized that I would need to change my house instead—thus the House That Cleans Itself system was born.
Time and again throughout this process, I realized that I was a living, breathing example of the Serenity Prayer: accepting the things that I couldn’t change about myself, changing the things I could, and learning to recognize the difference.
In the end, I came to understand that had I not gone through this process and found various ways to fix the issues that dominated my life, I would have spent the rest of my years drowning in my own good intentions, my lack of self discipline, and my mountains of clutter, lost opportunities, and neglected health. Worst of all, the Spirit would have remained pushed off to one side, called on for occasional help but otherwise relegated to yet another undone to-do list of good intentions.
BE SURE TO COME BACK TOMORROW FOR THE NEXT PORTION OF THIS ESSAY.
Friday
The Resolution Revolution, Part 5
(NOTE: TODAY’S POST IS A CONTINUATION OF YESTERDAY’S POST. TO START AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS ESSAY, SCROLL DOWN TO PART 1 AND MOVE UP FROM THERE.)
Oh, how I want to be delivered!
How much time I have wasted because of the mess, the clutter, the disorganization, the ill health, and more! Even if those things can’t be completely eliminated from my life, as long as I make the decision to be led by the Spirit, I will be able to give those bad tendencies “a decent burial,” so to speak, and get on with what’s really important, following as God’s Spirit beckons.
Yes! What is next for me, Lord?
And who I really am has nothing to do with trying to have a house—or a body or a schedule, for that matter—that looks like something that came from the pages of a magazine. All that stuff is so very much beside the point!
My prayers don’t need to be perfect, I don’t have to articulate every single need just so. When I grow weary, God instead can hear my sighs and my groans—lifting me up and helping me along whether I’ve asked Him “correctly” or not!
He knows how awful I am at housekeeping, at time management, at self discipline, yet He intercedes with God on my behalf anyway. Wow!
Something good? Can these lifelong struggles of mine actually be turned to something good? How amazing that would be!
Not only is God willing to help me, He will do so gladly and freely!
To that I would add …not mess, not disorganization, not poor food choices, not lack of exercise, not bad time management, and so on, as these things also seem to drive a wedge between God and me. But while they may make things cloudy on my end, they will never stop Him from pouring out His love on me! Whether I ever fully master my specific shortcomings in this lifetime or not, those shortcomings cannot prevent me from being the recipient of Christ’s abounding love. Talk about putting things in perspective!
Wow. He is stronger than my mess. He loves me even in the midst of my failed intentions. He wants my eyes on Him, my heart open to Him, and my life to be ready for His purposes. Nothing else really matters, because nothing can keep Him from loving me and filling me with His Spirit. Incredible. Praise God.
BE SURE TO COME BACK TOMORROW FOR THE NEXT PORTION OF THIS ESSAY.
When God lives and breathes in you…you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!
Oh, how I want to be delivered!
So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
How much time I have wasted because of the mess, the clutter, the disorganization, the ill health, and more! Even if those things can’t be completely eliminated from my life, as long as I make the decision to be led by the Spirit, I will be able to give those bad tendencies “a decent burial,” so to speak, and get on with what’s really important, following as God’s Spirit beckons.
This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?"
Yes! What is next for me, Lord?
God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are.
And who I really am has nothing to do with trying to have a house—or a body or a schedule, for that matter—that looks like something that came from the pages of a magazine. All that stuff is so very much beside the point!
The moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.
My prayers don’t need to be perfect, I don’t have to articulate every single need just so. When I grow weary, God instead can hear my sighs and my groans—lifting me up and helping me along whether I’ve asked Him “correctly” or not!
He knows us far better than we know ourselves…and keeps us present before God.
He knows how awful I am at housekeeping, at time management, at self discipline, yet He intercedes with God on my behalf anyway. Wow!
That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
Something good? Can these lifelong struggles of mine actually be turned to something good? How amazing that would be!
With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us?
Not only is God willing to help me, He will do so gladly and freely!
Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture.
To that I would add …not mess, not disorganization, not poor food choices, not lack of exercise, not bad time management, and so on, as these things also seem to drive a wedge between God and me. But while they may make things cloudy on my end, they will never stop Him from pouring out His love on me! Whether I ever fully master my specific shortcomings in this lifetime or not, those shortcomings cannot prevent me from being the recipient of Christ’s abounding love. Talk about putting things in perspective!
I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
Wow. He is stronger than my mess. He loves me even in the midst of my failed intentions. He wants my eyes on Him, my heart open to Him, and my life to be ready for His purposes. Nothing else really matters, because nothing can keep Him from loving me and filling me with His Spirit. Incredible. Praise God.
BE SURE TO COME BACK TOMORROW FOR THE NEXT PORTION OF THIS ESSAY.
Thursday
The Resolution Revolution, Part 4
(NOTE: TODAY’S POST IS A CONTINUATION OF YESTERDAY’S. TO START AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS ESSAY, SCROLL DOWN TO PART 1 AND MOVE UP FROM THERE.)
Paul continues in Romans 7, verse 25:
What does this verse mean, exactly? That we will continue to struggle this way for the rest of our lives? I think it does—in a sense. The Bible Knowledge Commentary explains it this way:
That feels like bad news, but as Paul continues to address these issues in full in Chapter 8, we are given tremendous hope as well. Though I won’t post the entire chapter here word for word, I strongly encourage you to read it for yourself, right now! (Click here for a link to Romans 8 at Biblegateway.com. It’ll bring you to the Message translation, but you can also easily view other translations there with the simple click of a button.)
Here are some of the verses in Romans 8 that spoke the most deeply to me, each one followed by the thoughts I had at the time. (Bible verses are in italics):
That would be so great, to get out from under the black cloud that is my messy house, my messy life!
Just the image of Christ “clearing the air” helps me to breathe easier.
And if He took on the disordered mess of humanity, might He be able to help with the disordered mess of my home and my time as well?
So it’s not about trying harder? The solution isn’t to be found in redoubling my efforts? Apparently not. Instead, this says that I am simply to focus on God and what His Spirit is doing in me.
Obviously, I have proven time and again that I cannot do this on my own. But can I really “trust God’s action” in me instead? More importantly, if I do that, will I really be filled with the Spirit of the living and breathing God?
A spacious, free life. I want that so badly that just reading the words brings tears to my eyes.
And what have I done every time in the past except focus on self—on my own determination, my own willpower, my own best intentions? No wonder I have continued to fail, year after year.
BE SURE TO COME BACK TOMORROW FOR THE NEXT PORTION OF THIS ESSAY.
Paul continues in Romans 7, verse 25:
The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
What does this verse mean, exactly? That we will continue to struggle this way for the rest of our lives? I think it does—in a sense. The Bible Knowledge Commentary explains it this way:
“While awaiting freedom from the presence of sin, believers still face conflicts between their regenerated minds (or new natures or capacities) and their sin natures or capacities."
That feels like bad news, but as Paul continues to address these issues in full in Chapter 8, we are given tremendous hope as well. Though I won’t post the entire chapter here word for word, I strongly encourage you to read it for yourself, right now! (Click here for a link to Romans 8 at Biblegateway.com. It’ll bring you to the Message translation, but you can also easily view other translations there with the simple click of a button.)
Here are some of the verses in Romans 8 that spoke the most deeply to me, each one followed by the thoughts I had at the time. (Bible verses are in italics):
[Believers] no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation.
That would be so great, to get out from under the black cloud that is my messy house, my messy life!
The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
Just the image of Christ “clearing the air” helps me to breathe easier.
In his Son, Jesus, [God] personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all.
And if He took on the disordered mess of humanity, might He be able to help with the disordered mess of my home and my time as well?
And now what…we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
So it’s not about trying harder? The solution isn’t to be found in redoubling my efforts? Apparently not. Instead, this says that I am simply to focus on God and what His Spirit is doing in me.
Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them—living and breathing God!
Obviously, I have proven time and again that I cannot do this on my own. But can I really “trust God’s action” in me instead? More importantly, if I do that, will I really be filled with the Spirit of the living and breathing God?
Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.
A spacious, free life. I want that so badly that just reading the words brings tears to my eyes.
Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God.
And what have I done every time in the past except focus on self—on my own determination, my own willpower, my own best intentions? No wonder I have continued to fail, year after year.
BE SURE TO COME BACK TOMORROW FOR THE NEXT PORTION OF THIS ESSAY.
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