Difficulties

Why Do I Keep Failing When I Try So Hard?

     You may have seen the children's cartoon about the cat who resolves that he'll overcome his urge to grab and eat a little bird. He tries so hard to be friendly. He even puts tape over his face to make sure he won't mess up. But in the end, after he can't stand it any longer, his true "cat nature" comes out and he stuffs the birdie in his mouth. Of course, the owner isn't far behind wielding a broomstick to make him spit it out.

     What's so humorous in this incident is that we as the audience know he's going to lose the inner battle. Why? In his heart, he's a cat, and he can't change his identity or his desires. We laugh because we relate to his fundamental problem.

     As people, the flaw in our natures is called sin, and it's been with us since the beginning. Everyone who has ever lived and who will be born in years to come is a sinner at heart. (Romans 3:23; Isaiah 53:6) Sin permeates your very being, clouds your perception, distorts the truth, and prevents you from having a relationship with God, that is, until you enter into a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ.

     When you accept His finished work on the Cross, your sin is wiped away forever. (Romans 5:8; 1 Peter 3:18) You are a new creation, ready to begin the lifelong adventure of becoming more and more like Jesus. (2 Corinthians 5:17) So that should be the end of it then—no more struggles, no more temptations, no more battling it out with the old desires—right?

     But your own experience as a believer tells you otherwise. Maybe it was a few hours or a few days or months, but sooner or later you experienced the tug of some old thoughts and habits, with much guilt and heartache. Perhaps you even doubted the authenticity of your salvation. You are not alone in this kind of pain; it's a path that many believers walk to gain an understanding of how God's saving grace operates in real, daily life.

     Paul himself was the first to confess to the reality of this inner turmoil. "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 the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me . . .

     "For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 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!" (Romans 7:15-25)
     Paul describes the ongoing tension between his position as a new creature in Christ and the continuing urge to sin. It is clear from his description that he gave in to the sin, whatever it was, and more than once. And he also recognizes that the struggle will not be officially over until he is glorified with Christ.

     What is over for Paul and for you, however, is the dominating power of sin. This passage is not a message of defeat and despair; it's one of hope and victory. The good news of the Cross is that you are no longer a slave to sin. Before coming to the Lord, you had no choice. Sin was the dictator in your life, whether you knew it or not. Now, Jesus is the owner of your nature through the power of the Holy Spirit.

     Read what Paul writes at the beginning of Romans 8: "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. . . . For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace" (1-6).

     The conflict between the flesh and the Spirit within you is a form of spiritual warfare, and you win much of the battle just by realizing that the struggle exists. Sin is still a powerful force to be reckoned with, but it can no longer exert influence over you unless you allow it to do so. You are not doomed to failure, and to believe otherwise is to remain in needless, painful bondage. That breaks the heart of the Lord and grieves the Spirit greatly. (Ephesians 4:30)

     Do you remember the agony Peter went through when he denied three times that he knew the Lord? That was spiritual failure on a grand scale, and part of what heightened his pain was his overconfidence beforehand. With great passion in his voice, Peter had exclaimed to Jesus, "Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!" But Jesus replied, "I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me" (Luke 22:33-34).

     Peter was probably bewildered, but he was not considering the powerful lure of sin, especially at a moment of weakness. Sure enough, it wasn't long before Peter had turned his back on his dearest Friend in the world. He went outside and wept bitterly. The story does not end there, of course. After Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to Peter and others on the shore of Galilee and made it clear that He fully forgave Peter and embraced him as a sheep that is found and restored. (John 21)

     You cannot wander too far, fail too many times, or exceed Christ's forgiveness. When you repent and turn to Him once more, He restores your fellowship as though nothing had happened. What happens inside your heart when you fail and turn to Jesus is a strengthening and maturation, the same kind that occurred in Peter.

     The next time we meet him in Scripture is as an active apostle, busy building and encouraging the early church. Peter had learned his lesson well. And though he surely experienced other failures and setbacks, he knew that his Savior was ever at his side ready to forgive.
     Notice what a wiser Peter says about God's grace and keeping the perspective of the Spirit: ". . . [S]eeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust" (2 Peter 1:3-4).

     You are on an ever-upward climb to holiness, set apart for God's purposes. As you learn to say no to the power of sin and rest in His grace, you are freed up to obey with renewed vigor and energy and understanding. Throughout this process, it is imperative to grasp that obedience is a choice: yielding to God and becoming more like Christ is a decision you make.

     Jerry Bridges explains in his book The Pursuit Of Holiness: "We [as believers] can now stand up to sin and say no to it. Before we had no choice; now we have one. When we sin as Christians, we do not sin as slaves, but as individuals with the freedom of choice . . . Our deliverance is through our union with Christ in His death. . . . We are to count on this fact that we are dead to sin's rule, that we can stand up to it and say no. Therefore we are to guard our bodies so that sin does not reign in us.

     "So we see that God has made provision for our holiness. Through Christ he has delivered us from sin's reign so that we now can resist sin. But the responsibility for resisting is ours. God does not do that for us. To confuse the potential for resisting (which God provided) with the responsibility for resisting (which is ours) is to court disaster."

     You have a great potential to live free and holy through Jesus Christ, but God will never force you to do this. Yet He longs for you to turn to Him in every spiritual conflict, acknowledge your weakness, and ask for His power to say no.

     Are you tired of fighting what you think is a losing battle? Do you secretly feel you are a failure as a Christian? It's not true, and the sooner you learn to rejoice and grow in the reality of your identity in Him, the sooner you will experience the thrill of victory.