Sometimes as a pastor I feel the temptation to try to present myself as the finished product. My wife would obviously never fall for it, but I could try to fool everybody else. (-; The reality however, is that I need God just as much now as I always have. There are still parts of me that want to rebel against what I know to be true and forsake many of the blessings that God placed in my life. That internal motivation to rebel seems crazy at times.

I know that God brings the solution into my life and yet I sometimes find myself fighting the very relationships, principles and ideas that are meant to help me. Have you ever chosen the wrong enemies in your life? You know that someone is trying to help you and yet you fight against the very source of your potential healing or solution. Why do we do that?

I’m convinced that the reason we do that is because of an internal bent towards sin that we were born with. For as long as we are on this side of heaven, that impulse inside of us will never go away. One of the most remarkable things about Jesus is his ability to rescue us in spite of ourselves. It’s amazing to me that he can take people who fight against him constantly and guide them in the direction of his promises.

I am a person like that. As Paul articulates so well in Romans 7, there are many times when I know the right thing to do or say and yet I find myself doing the opposite. I’m very thankful that even though I am a great sinner, Jesus is a great Savior. He doesn’t tell us to clean up or figure it all out before we come to him. We come to him with all of our faults, all of our sins and all of our messes and somehow he is able to turn our mess into a masterpiece.