When I want to do what is right, why do I always do what is wrong?

Why is it that every time we try to do the “right thing” or try to start living for God the way we want to live for him, things start to go royally wrong and we end up doing the “wrong thing” and not living for God the way we want to?  Well, the obvious answer to this is Satan.  The Bible calls him “a lion, who seeks to devour people!”  However, we can’t blame all our “mess ups” on Satan unfortunately!

The Apostle Paul describes himself like this (and honestly, I relate so much!)

Romans 7:14-25:   So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. ¹⁶ But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. ¹⁸ And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  I want to do what is right, but I can’t. ¹⁹ I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. ²⁰ But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. ²¹ I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. ²² I love God’s law with all my heart. ²³ But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. ²⁴ Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? ²⁵ Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

I am always VERY encouraged by this passage of Scripture because here we have the Apostle Paul (who was a great man of God) struggling with the very same thing that we all struggle with: OURSELVES!!  While Satan really is the enemy of our souls and he want to make things go wrong for you (especially when you make a decision to do things for God!); our greatest enemy is our own sinful nature.  Satan knows that we have a “sinful nature” so he tempts our “sin nature” with our personal favorite sins and deep weaknesses.  It seems every time I write one a post on this blog for God, Satan comes after my sinful nature and my weaknesses.  He attacks when we are living for God or doing something for God because he wants you to give up! 

Just the other day when I spent hours writing about how much God has healed me physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually; the next day was pure hell.  I had a bad headache from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed and I was an emotional & mental wreck.  However, I knew that it was Satan attacking my weaknesses and getting my “sin nature” to act up!  It never, fails; when you try to do what is right, we will often do what is wrong! 

The amazing thing is though that there is an answer to this misery; JESUS! He is the only one that gives us the power to “walk by faith” even when everything seems to be going wrong! He is the one who holds are hand through trials and tests.  He is the one that fights our spiritual battles against our own flesh and against demonic forces we face each day.  This is why it is so crucial to stay close to Him everyday through prayer, meditation and reading the Bible.  Prayer and reading and meditating on God’s Word gives us daily strength, faith, and motivation to deny our “sinful nature” and fight against Satan’s forces! I will not lie, some days we lose the fight and give into our “sin nature” but if you have given your life to Christ, THE BATTLE HAS ALREADY BEEN WON!!! 

What I mean by this is that Jesus already defeated all sin and Satan when He died on the cross over 2,000 years ago and rose again!  If you have asked Him; He has forgiven your past, present, and even future sins (WOW!)   He now sits right next to God and mediates on our behalf.  Because Jesus walked on this earth as fully human and fully God; He understands our daily struggle not to sin.  Jesus never sinned on earth but He faced every temptation we face and was tempted by Satan as well (Luke 4:1-13).  This is why Jesus “sticks up for us” even when we do what we don’t want to do and don’t do what we want to do!  He ‘gets us’ because He walked in our shoes.  God Himself became flesh so that He could understand us better (what kind of crazy love is that for a perfect God who had no suffering to come to this earth and suffer with us and for us)?

So, I say all this to say firstly, our fight against Satan and our sin natures cannot be won with Jesus! Secondly, when and if you decide to REALLY live for God or if you already live for God and you decide to do something to reach out to people for God; things will go wrong.  Do not be discouraged by this though; it is actually a sign that you are doing the right thing.  If Satan and your sin nature always leaves you alone then you are no threat to Satan.  But the minute you start to fight for God’s Kingdom, watch out; you have become a threat!  Not to worry though, God has your back; we must continue to walk by faith no matter what happens!!!  The battle has already been won!