Failure to Act

Romans 7:15-25
15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me. 21 So I discover this principle: when I want to do good, evil is with me. 22 For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God’s law. 23 But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, to the law of sin.
(from Holman Christian Standard Bible® © by Holman Bible Publishers.)

When we decide to change our behavior, but don’t quite change it, we usually fail in 3 ways: Forgetting that we changed our minds when the opportunity to change arises; Failing to act because we don’t see the opportunity until it has passed; Failing to maintain the mindset that the new action is best while we are deciding what to do when we encounter the opportunity.

We need to decide clearly WHY we have changed our minds and somehow remind ourselves what the reason is when we have the opportunity to get it right.

We sometimes can simply decide ahead of time when or where we will do the new thing – schedule it, and then our mood or energy level won’t talk us out of it. It becomes important.