Romans 7

God never meant for us to be able to keep the laws He gave. He meant them to show us that we are not worthy of holiness; He gave them to humble us, to see that we needed to reach out to Him for help. Reaching for Christ to stay away from sin, not only saves us for eternity but gives us a richer life here on earth. But it is not of our own power, but the power of Christ within us.
"But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter." v.6

"For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law..." v. 5
I thought the word "aroused" was interesting. Our rebellious nature wants to do the very thing we are told not to; restrictions add a desire - almost a need - to do the opposite. Why is that? Well one, it is our nature, our nature that needs God's power. And two, for me, it is (was) almost compulsory for me to rebel against any kind of authority. I never liked feeling "squashed" under someone else's power and spent my young life disobeying and running from authority, authority that had been put in place by God to protect me. IE: my mom, my first husband, my first relationship with Christ, my first bosses, etc. I learned a valuable lesson the hard way. And like a wild horse, I was finally broken and I am the better for it, though I still struggle from time to time.

"Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" v. 24-25
"'Body of this death': Tradition says that an ancient tribe near Tarsus (where Paul is from) tied the corpse of a murder victim to its murderer, allowing its spreading decay to slowly infect and execute the murderer." John MacArthur
Wow, something we should try today? LOL

Praise God for His word and Paul's example:
"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...For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want." v. 15-19
We (I) are not alone in our struggle. But greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.

This video below makes me smile! I love this kind of music from the 70's. Fills me with such joy. Check out Johnny Cash - the man in black!