Feel the change...

What role does the Bible play in growing our faith?


So I had a friend of mine who was really struggling in a particular area of his life. He felt like for every step he took forward, he fell back another two. Even though he knew that what he was doing was wrong, he kept falling into the same old trap. One night he asked me, "Am I the only one who's ever felt like this?"

In answer I emailed this scripture from the book of Romans chapter 7 verses 18-19, "18 I know there is nothing good in my sinful nature. I want to do what is good, but I can't. 19 I don't do the good things I want to do. I keep on doing the evil things I don't want to do."

In this particular passage, the Apostle Paul is wrestling with his sinful nature and he expresses a common frustration. Who hasn't sat back after a particularly bad decision and wondered why we knowingly embraced a choice that led to death? All of us have been there.

Now the point of this story isn't to excuse my friend's behavior. What he did was wrong, no two ways about it. But by reading
about the struggle Paul endured two thousand years ago, my friend was able to gain some perspective, dust himself off, and try again. Paul also ends his painful deliberations on a victorious note. In verses 24-25, Paul says, "24 What a terrible failure I am! Who will save me from this sin that brings death to my body? 25 I give thanks to God. He will do it through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Often times we look at the writers of the Bible as superhuman beings whose every thought was whispered to them by God. But sometimes, in my darkest moments, I find comfort in the fact that the Bible is a collection of stories about people. People who sometimes succeeded in pleasing God and sometimes failed miserably. People who were just like me.

Pick up your Bible and read a couple of verses. You might be surprised at who you find staring back from the pages.


- Don