I don't have any answers to those questions.
However, there is something that I do know. There is something deep down inside of us that wants to do good and shun evil. As believers, it goes deeper than our dysfunctional flesh. It goes deeper than our messed up past. It is God. He lives inside of us now. Deep down inside, He's there. He's strong. He's powerful. He's got a heart. He's given it to us. He's raised us from the dead.
Oh, I know the bigger part of ourself feels like all we want to do is escape and run away from our lives and our problems. But, we have to believe the truth, which is that we all know that there is "something", I'm not even sure what to call it, but there is something deep down inside us that doesn't want to do all the sinful things we're used to doing. We don't want to go off on our spouse. We don't want to tell another half-truth. We don't want to take that next drink or joint. We all know there is something deep down that wants to get into healthy relationships and cast off those sorts of things. We may not have the power to do it, but we know the desire is deep down there, even if only a glimpse or a moment in time.
What we have to believe is that it is God in there. He's the one who has changed us into new creatures. The desire we have to do good and shun evil is real. It is ours. It is ours because God has given it to us. Every temptation that comes, we must remember that our deeper desire is to to cast it off because we have goodness to give to the world. It can feel so small sometimes, but we have to remember that even if it seems like such a small desire in the wake of the seemingly larger, dysfunctional patterns of the past that it is still real and it is who God has turned us into. God's heart inside us will win in the long run.
2 Corinthians 5:21
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