One of the most relatable passages in all of Scripture is when Paul says that what he wants to do, he doesn't do, but what he doesn't want to do, he keeps on doing. That's all he has to say, and we all know what he's talking about...but it doesn't keep us from becoming frustrated with ourselves. In fact, many of us spend many years of our lives trying to fight these things inside of us that we can't seem to change.
Maybe that's just who we are.
So, then, we go back to the beginning, all the way to Genesis, and we blame it all on what we call "the Fall" - that heart-wrenching scene in the Garden of Eden when Eve picks a fig from the forbidden tree, gives some to Adam, they both eat, and the rest of humanity is ruined forever (until, of course, Jesus comes...and then comes back). It's their fault, we say, that we keep on doing what we don't want to do and can't seem to do the things we know we should.
We're just cursed.
We spend our whole lives wrestling with the mirror, trying to figure out how it is that we became so fallen, why it is that we can't seem to overcome it, why we can't just stop ourselves from doing what we don't want to do when we know we don't want to do it and shouldn't do it and what we want to do is actually something else. Something good.
What hope is there for someone like me?
At some point, I think most of us decide that there is no hope for someone like us, so we pivot. We turn our focus to "that glorious day" when Jesus comes back, sets everything right, takes us into eternity with Him, and we don't have to worry about our broken, sinful, fallen selves any more.
Until then, we guess we're just sinners, stuck in Paul's troubles on this side of Eden.
But what if...we're not as helpless as we think?
There are many names for God in the Bible, many identifiers that His people have called Him by. The God Who Sees Me, Lord of Armies, God with us...there are entire devotionals dedicated to pulling the names of God out of the Bible.
Well, here's one for you from the book of Jude:
"the God who is able to keep you from falling" (v. 24).
The God who can keep you from making the same mistake that Eve made in the Garden (by trusting the serpent more than she trusted God), the same mistake that Adam made in the Garden (which he made by trusting Eve more than he trusted God). The God who can keep you from living in Paul's depression, doing what you don't want to do and not doing what you want to do. The God who came to live among you not just so that your eternity would be secure but so that your life would be abundant.
This God is able to keep you from falling.
The question, then, is whether you will let Him.
Will you come to the Lord when the mirror keeps telling you what you don't want to hear? Will you let Him help you?
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