Encouragement – Part 1
Has it ever seemed like there was something within you that you just couldn’t control —a passion, an urge, that seemed to work against everything you know to be right? You purpose with everything within to do right and yet it still seems as though the desire gets the best of you. You feel like there is no hope for you to overcome, so what’s the purpose of trying to become victorious?
Well brothers and sisters, I’m here to tell you that you are not alone in how you feel. Many of us experience these same feelings and struggles. Many people (myself included) have hit the place where it seems almost futile try to stand for God’s principles.
Paul depicts this struggle so eloquently in Romans 7:17-19: For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”
Paul explains the struggles that so many of us encounter. We want to do right, but it seems like evil is present. Your parents tell you not to touch something. Yes, you want to obey them, but yet something within you tells you, go head, touch it. You won-der where do these thoughts come from, but as Paul says as you desire to do good, evil is present with you. The reality is that as much as we want to do right, and as much as we desire to be good, the presence of the evil is always near but with Christ, we can overcome. Paul tells us in Romans 8:37 that we are more than conquerors.
-Elder Kelvin Bailey
