Struggling with Self-Control

So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good.
The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.
I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right,
but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.
Romans 7:14–15

I’ve eaten too much, interfered where I had no business meddling, and spoken when I should have remained silent. Those are pretty common problems, aren’t they? Universal, in fact. We have all exceeded the bounds of wisdom by failing to restrain ourselves. We all suffer from the same ailment: lack of self-control.

I would be a lot harder on myself were it not for Romans 7:14–15. I derive a lot of comfort from what the apostle Paul writes of his own experience. This man was an undisputed spiritual giant, called on by God to write God-breathed words and to lead thousands of believers on the journey to Christlikeness.

Best of all, Paul led by example! He lived in submission to Christ no matter what. He was beaten, stoned, starved, shipwrecked, imprisoned, called a devil on one day and a god on another and ultimately martyred for this faithfulness to the gospel. We might be tempted to think that he lived as close to perfection as the Lord Himself, were it not for his own admission.

Paul’s candid confession in Romans 7 sounds exactly like yours or mine: “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” (Romans 7:15).

Look at that! The apostle Paul is openly declaring that he can’t always follow the very commands he writes under inspiration. He’s not saying that theoretically he sometimes behaves differently than he knows to be right. He’s saying, “This is life as I live it. This is the unending struggle of life as I experience it. I don’t understand this about myself. I decide one way, and then I wind up acting another.”

Check out what he said a little later. It gets worse: “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” (Romans 7:18).

How honest is that? Isn’t that true for all of us? I can’t count the times I have asked myself, “Why? Why did I do something so foolish?” Paul’s analysis exposing the root cause comes back, loud and clear.