Clarity
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 NASB
I do not understand – Was Paul confused? When he writes, “I do not understand,” does he really mean “What I’m doing makes no sense to me,” or is he thinking, “I know what’s happening but it appears as a contradiction”? We can assume that he knows what he is doing. He just notices that what he is doing stands in utter contradiction to what he wishes he could do. In other words, he isn’t confused about the action. He’s confused about why he takes the action.
Anthony Bloom helps us figure out what Paul is trying to communicate.
“There is a great deal of difference between attachment and love, between hunger and greed, between a live interest and curiosity, and so forth. Every one of our natural propensities has got a counterpart which is marked by evil and which is one of the ways in which we get enslaved. This is what I meant by withdrawing tentacles. To begin with, say ‘no.’ If you haven’t said ‘no’ in time, you are in for a fight. But then be ruthless about it, because reason and detachment are more precious than what you get as a slave in terms of enjoyment.”[1]
What bothers us is that nearly all temptations have an element of appropriate desire. We do need to eat. We do need comfort. We do need a sense of personal control and direction. We do need to investigate. We do need a sense of self-worth. It’s just that each of these can also become the source of enslavement. How does that happen? Because the enjoyment we get from indulging in the extension of this natural desire overrides its intended function. When my hunger has been satisfied, I don’t stop eating. Now I eat for the enjoyment of it or for the numbing that eating provides so I don’t have to deal with something else. Now the natural propensity is replaced by excess, and now what I do doesn’t make any sense to me. I know I don’t need to eat anymore to take care of my nutritional needs. Now I eat for some other reason—but most of the time I don’t know what that other reason actually is. I just know that eating makes me feel better. I am a slave.
Let’s clarify, if we can, a few mistakes about Paul’s words. Those who follow the theology of Aquinas-Luther-Calvin, might assume that Paul is decrying the “evil nature” of Man. This theology suggests that after the Fall, Man inherited a sinful nature which causes him to sin and is the source of his trials. If this were true, then the task is to get rid of this sinful nature (which can only be accomplished by God’s direct intervention). Under this theology, sinful action is a strictly spiritual matter and godly redemption is the only solution. The problem is not behavior patterns but rather essential existence.
But Aquinas, et. al., are wrong. God did not curse men with a sinful constitution when Adam made his choice. Rather, men have learned to ignite their own proclivities in an ever-increasing pattern of self-fulfillment. The yetzer ha’ra has been given free rein in the lives of most people and we have converted need to desire—and discovered, as Paul proclaims, that we are no longer free to say “No,” but rather bound to our own expansions of what was once, for us, merely a necessity of life. What we do not understand is how we got to this place, how we ended up consistently doing those things that we really don’t want to do but have now become a way of coping with the rest of our lives. We didn’t say “no” a long time ago, and now we don’t know how to say “no” without feeling enormous internal pain.
Perhaps Bloom offers one other important pointer.
“I have tried to point out, first of all, that your prayer must be turned inwards, not towards a God of Heaven nor towards a God far off, but towards God who is closer to you than you are aware; and secondly, that the first act of prayer is to choose such words of prayer as are completely true to what you are, words which you are not ashamed of, which express you adequately and are worthy of you—and then offer them to God with all the intelligence of which you are capable.”[2]
Can you and I pray like this? Can we simply say to God what is real about us now, even in this state of contradiction? Can we tell Him how desperately we want to be who we believe we can be, and not be ashamed to say that we aren’t there? Can we speak words worthy of what He made us to be about us?
We can try, can’t we?
Topical Index: prayer, understand, Romans 7:15, contradiction
[1] Anthony Bloom, Beginning to Pray, p. 44.
[2] Ibid., p. 49.
Every time sin gets added, I get erased. Every time the compulsion goes up, the true sense of my real needs goes down. I want to say people who are sin slaves have lost the ability to identify their real needs. Sin substitutes our sense of our true needs with compulsions. The baby gets switched in the cradle and we are left trying to love ourselves with a snake from hell. BUT, try convincing someone that their “way of coping” is going to require “an enormous amount of pain” to get rid of, but that it is necessary before they can truly love themselves, and they are likely going to just quit listening. Sigh.
All sin causes us to hate ourselves because we know we are not choosing what would satisfy our real needs. All sin derives its energy from another part of our essential energy. I would want to amend Skip’s statement slightly to say we “ignite (our) own proclivities in an ever-increasing pattern of” – I would want to add “A DELUSIONAL ATTEMPT AT” – “self fulfillment” by means of sucking the energy from that God-given desire for love. Thank you, Skip. You are definitely going in the right direction for me.
We were created as an ongoing, open-ended set of desires for self realization, for that desire is what guides us to reach out for the connections that establish not only self identity (as well as the mirroring realization of the identity of others) but also the satisfaction of need, which is the way we love ourselves. This satisfaction derived from that self realization is necessary, for we love others out of abundance; literally, “as we love ourselves”.
Sin destroys the supply lines, for all sin lies to us that we are loving ourselves, but it substitutes some version of robbing Peter to pay Paul; of satisfying our need for love at the expense of some other way we were loving ourselves, thus setting up the cycle of self hatred. There are no bigger lies ever conceived in hell than the ones that tell us that sin is love, or that hate is love (versions of self hate always get translated into hatred of select ‘others’, for the principle of the ORDER of love still holds, even in hate). We HAVE to satisfy self need first, in the ordinate order of love, before we can satisfy the need of others, but when we sin, we get ever poorer and more unable to love others, for we are eating the seed corn and our own tails in the process.
Freedom to love must be established before we can obey the command to love. We have to quit sinning FIRST, for sin takes away from ourselves the ability (abundance) TO love. I must quit sinning (and thus hating myself) before I can love myself (identify and satisfy real need), and I must start loving myself (and thus have my needs met) before I am FREE (from sin, of course) to satisfy the needs (love) others. I have to do my own homework before I can help you with yours, and you are right to refuse to let me help you unless I can show you mine. (Um, that would be witness, of course.) “They will know you by your love (connectedness)”. What love? Self love. Nature selects for strength and beauty derived from health, and we do, too (which Holly wood knows). I can trust you to treat me right if I see you are free to treat yourself right. “Elementary, my dear Watson.” (Sherlock Holmes)
Hello folks oddly enough my reading texts today is….. Luke 14:33 paraphrased unless one of you does not give up all of his belongings he cannot be my disciple. I am always (try to be) mindful of the parable of the sower and the seed especially where the cares of this world choke off the seed. Our desire needs to be in Christ riches alone Earthly riches can have some good but they always lead to temptation either for me or the others around me. I am recently out on disability and my compensation was just cut in half and our insurance ran out when I was out for more than a year my position needed to be filled so I was terminated what a mess in our congregation on Tuesday night we always pray for each other and our families as I was approaching the door to leave a close sister in the congregation follow me outside and when no one was around she tapped me on the shoulder before I entered my car and said to me I thought this might help you pay your property tax bill…… It was a bank envelope my wife was picking me up that night and we pulled down a side road and I said let’s count this together it was an Bank envelope with $100 bills the total over Wellness we are talking over the top then the next week someone else gave us more Not only was the tax bill cover but other debt that we were falling behind on we are caught up now praise be to God has David said along with Abraham all that I obtained it’s from the hand of God sorry for the long post but this blessing is still quite near to us. Also I’ve often thought that any curse is the absence of the blessing or removal of the blessing just a thought that might come into line with today’s conversation shalom.
P.S. This particular generous person was just three weeks new to our congregation!!!!
Brett, that is the manner in which Communities who fallow Yeshua should live and function. May there be more among us as this lady. Yahweh Bless you, her and your Fellowship.
“…the first act of prayer is to 1) CHOOSE SUCH WORDS OF PRAYER AS ARE COMPLETELY TRUE TO WHAT YOU ARE, words which you are not ashamed of, which express you adequately and are worthy of you—and THEN 2) OFFER THEM TO GOD WITH ALL THE INTELLIGENCE OF WHICH YOU ARE CAPABLE.”
I agree with the first act, “choosing words as are completely true”. But I think I would have to somewhat disagree with the second proposed act of prayer, “offering those words with all the intelligence of which you are capable”.
It is true, we need to “choose such words of prayer as are completely true to what we are. If we are not convicted of the TRUTH about our own sin, and are not adequately aware enough of the TRUTH of the past, present, and potential consequences of our sin, and are not also adequately aware enough of the TRUTH of how we ought to be instead, as well as of the TRUTH of the potential benefits of our being different, then how can we expect to be delivered as slaves of the lies of the “father of lies” and become freemen, bondslaves, really, of the One Who is the TRUTH, when we are double minded and do not have singleness of heart? The TRUTH is essential in effectual prayers and self-deception will not permit us entry into the kingdom of light and freedom and abundant, everlasting life. We will suppress the TRUTH in unrighteousness, the TRUTH will not be “in us” (or rightly, in our mouths), and we make God a liar (in our own minds and according to our own lips).
However, I do not agree that the next act of prayer is to “then offer them (your words) to God with all the intelligence of which you are capable”. True, our intelligence is essential, but in choosing such words as are completely true to what we are. What is needed next is the exercising of our WILL! We must be whole-hearted, single and not double minded, earnest, sincere, longing, desiring, determined, hungering, thirsting, loving what is good, hating what is evil, etc..
Choose this day Who you will serve (WILL). The kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in a field, that when one finds it, he goes and sells all he owns to purchase that field (WILL). He is at work in you both for the willing and working for His good pleasure (WILL). We could go on and on about the necessity of our WILL as much as, if not more than, our intelligence.
Hello Skip and Friends if I remember correctly prayer should be focused on a God consciousness or God inside minded this has been revolutionary in my life and in those around me. Proclamations with faith are essential I have seen and I believe that the proclamations of God’s word produce God’s intention and timing patience is also required the proclamation stirs up the spirit to believe what has already been put into action for Nothing is Impossible with God not to be connected with the health wealth gospel but the just shall live by faith which is also the actions that we perform in obedience and alignment. This is a struggle everyday but my delight is in the Lord and his Delight is in me. Shalom again
It is critical I believe to know we are caught in a war between Kingdoms. The kingdom of this world system fueled with the hate of Ha Satan the adversary of our souls= death. And the kingdom of life in Messiah. He (Ha Satan) advances on blame shame and guilt vs the Kingdom of YHWH filled with grace truth and glory. Knowing who we are listening too listen too and who’ s side your on help I think.
“Knowing who we are listening too and who’ s side we are on in our mind helps” “take captive every thought and submit it to Christ”. It was Paul I believe who warned us of that and that attitude informs this conversation…