The One Who Wills to Do Good!

"I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good."

Romans 7:21

Right before this statement is the famous passage in which Paul lays out so eloquently the battle that we all can relate with, the battle between our spirit man and our carnal nature. He discusses how he constantly is doing what he doesn't want to do and doesn't do what he wants to. How many of us can relate to exactly that statement? 

I don't want to lash out in anger and say things I don't mean...

I don't want to think those kinds of thoughts...

I don't want to keep lying to my boss about being sick...

I don't want to eat so much that I get sick...

OR

I want to read my Bible more...

I want to pray more...

I want to do more acts of kindness...

I want to give generously...

Paul, the apostle who God used to write two thirds of the new testament, tells us that he can relate to all of those statements. He calls those things exactly what they are, evil. But he also comes to a very important conclusion: even though there is evil with me, that is not my identity. I am not evil. I am the "one who wills to do good". 

If Satan can't get you to think that sin is okay then he will try and do the exact opposite. He will make you think that you are evil because of your sin. Paul calls that out and shows us that we are not evil. Regardless of how many evil things we end up doing, regardless of how many times we 'mess up' or how many times we sin, we are not sinners! We simply have evil present with us but we are the ones who want to do the right thing. 

As Paul continues on he references a war within us, a war that is going on in our own mind, and this is a war that we will continue to fight until we are glorified with Jesus. However, if we start of in this war with a false understanding of who we are we have already lost. Remember my last post, Jesus imputed righteousness to us, He made righteousness into one of our characteristics. 

You are the "one who wills to do good".

Your Characteristic of Righteousness

"Now it was not written for his sake alone that [righteousness] was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our justification." - Romans 4:23-25 

Context:

Paul spends the majority of chapters two and three of Romans painting a picture of man's sinful nature. In chapter two he declares that we are "inexcusable" when we judge because we have all done the same things and in chapter three he goes on to declare that all have sinned and all have "come short of the glory of God" (v.23). But then at the end of chapter two his tone begins to change. He starts talking about the righteousness of God being revealed and in chapter four he goes back to some very familiar characters in Jewish history to prove a point. Paul specifically focuses on Abraham. He reminds his readers of the scripture which declares that Abraham's faith "was accounted to him for righteousness" (4:22). This is quoting Genesis 15:6 which states: "Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness." (NIV) 

Message:

Paul tells his readers that Genesis 15:6 wasn't just declaring Abram's righteousness but was setting forth a standard for us. Abram was an example. He achieved righteousness through believing God and we can follow that same example. Of course now we have something very specific to believe in; the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we believe and accept this fact the Word said that righteousness is imputed to us. If you look up the definition of the word 'imputed' you will find that it means "made a characteristic". In other words, our belief makes righteousness so much a part of us that it becomes one of our characteristics! We often describe people by there characteristics, for example someone might describe me as: light brown hair, green eyes, broad shoulders, about six feet. According to Paul, because of my belief in Christ, someone could just as accurately throw "righteous" in there as a part of the description!

Let's remember today the righteousness that has been imputed to us. Stop calling yourself a sinner, stop declaring your weaknesses or shortcomings over your self. You are righteous! It is one of your characteristics.

An Idea for Dads

Back in November I revisited a blog post that has somehow received, by far, the most amount of views out of anything I have written. I revisited it for two reasons, one it is my most popular post, and two it was about to become much more relevant in my own life. If you are a new reader the post is about prophesying blessing over our children and you can read both posts in the following links:

Prophesy Blessing Over Your Children

Revisited

Today I read a post on www.desiringgod.com that gives a unique idea into how to do this. I want to encourage all the fathers, all the dads, to go here, and to seriously consider the idea presented.

In case you really don't want to go to the link, or the link doesn't work, let me summarize the idea for you. We have all heard preachers discuss the merits of writing in our Bibles, but we always here about doing it for ourselves, for our own study. This writer, Jonathan Parnell, gives the idea of doing it for our kids. He suggests that to do this well we would need to take about ten years.

Think about it. You, as a father, as the spiritual head of your house, buy a fresh Bible and take ten years to read through it and ask God for words specifically for your child. Your child would receive ten years of prophetic words straight from his or her father. Can you imagine the impact that would have? Maybe you start when they are newborn and you give it to them on their tenth birthday, or maybe you wait and give it as a graduation gift. Possibly your kids are already grown, it's not too late to do a project like this.

In the article Parnell mentions that most of us aren't going to do anything remarkable, but being a father is remarkable in itself. To your children you are the most remarkable man in the world and one of the two most remarkable people.

It didn't take me long to decide that this is something I want to do, something I need to do, for my baby girl. All I need to do is pray over the details. May God inspire more of you fathers to do this, or something similar, for your children.