Two Little Words

Forgiveness is a wonderful thing, but still I couldn’t see my way out of the sin that so easily beset me.  I knew the Lord required a life of holiness. When reading the Bible I saw it everywhere I looked.

Be ye holy, as I am holy.  I Peter 1:15-16 NASB

..prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach..  Phil. 2:15 NASB

…the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk…as He walked. I John 2:6 NASB

I knew I was to be holy, but my question was, “Holy how?” I’d listened to plenty of preaching about right living. I had heard what to do, but I hadn’t heard how to do it. I could plainly see His will, and I could see my willingness, but how to fulfill that will remained a perpetual mystery and a source of endless frustration and condemnation. One thing was sure though…I was supposed to be bearing good fruit.

 …walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work…  Colossians 1:10

I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit.  John 15:16

I knew I had been chosen of God and mercifully saved. My desires had changed and I had begun a pursuit of God where I’d previously had no knowledge of Him. Years had gone by since then and I was ashamed to admit that I was seeing more bad fruit than good.  Yet again, the Word I read said…

A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.  Matthew 7:18 NASB

I was confused, but I moved beyond confusion and into fear for the Scripture goes on to say…

 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Matthew 7:19

This inability to bear fruit was getting the best of me. I had to find a way out. As the search for answers continued I eventually discovered I was not alone in this cycle of defeat. The apostle Paul faced this same dilemma and spoke of it in Romans 7.

For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. Romans 7:15 NASB

the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. Romans 7:18 NASB

For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. Romans 7:19 NASB

It was somewhat comforting to know I wasn’t the only one who had faced this tormenting frustration. As I read Paul’s story, which was the same as my story, I heard him sound a note of victory at the end of the chapter. To be honest though, I still couldn’t see the solution. I heard him proclaim Jesus as the answer, but to me it was still so vague. But I did notice an interesting thing as I read and re-read the chapter. Something began to ring repeatedly in my ears, most likely because Paul used two particular words over and over again in recounting his story. As I continued to search, desperate for an answer, those two little words began to resound in my head….good and evil.  Those words led me back…back to another place I had heard those two words used.

…My Story continues here