To Be Least

¹⁵I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

²¹So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God's law; ²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7)

      I am guilty of sinning against my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I have fallen short of the glory of God again. Thanks be to Jesus who washes my sins away by his blood. He was the sacrifice for my sins, and your sins. It is only through the forgiveness I find in Jesus Christ that I can pick up my cross and begin to walk forward. It is only because of his blood that I can clean my slate and start fresh. I thank God that, "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:8)
      The Bible clearly tells Christians to live apart from the world, to walk in the light. If we claim to be in the light, yet walk in the darkness we deceive ourselves. However, if we do sin we can come before Christ with a repentant heart and ask for forgiveness. He will forgive us.

      Lord I thank you for coming down to this earth to take on the humble position of a carpenter's son and eventually pay the ultimate price for my sin. Although you were without sin, you took the consequences of my sin. I deserve death, yet it is only because you, Jesus, laid down your life for me that I can live. May I walk in obedience from this day forward and continue to follow you. In Jesus' name, amen.