Good Pets, Bad Moments: We Always Need Grace
Daily Scripture
Romans 7:21-25
21 So I find that, as a rule, when I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me. 22 I gladly agree with the Law on the inside, 23 but I see a different law at work in my body. It wages a war against the law of my mind and takes me prisoner with the law of sin that is in my body. 24 I’m a miserable human being. Who will deliver me from this dead corpse? 25 Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then I’m a slave to God’s Law in my mind, but I’m a slave to sin’s law in my body.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
We love them, we play with them, we train them as much as we can. But most “good pets” at times remind us that they are still animals. They may tear up a shoe or couch pillow we value, wake us when we need sleep, or just refuse to get along with another pet. The apostle Paul wrote honestly about times when he realized that his human actions didn’t match the ideals he truly held to. Like our pets, we sometimes fall short in our struggle to live the way God wants us to live.
- In The Message, Eugene Peterson paraphrased verses 22-23 this way: “I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.” * Can you recall times (though you might prefer to forget them) when those words described your experience? In what ways do times like that make God’s ever-present grace particularly important to you?
- Research shows that even when we think we’re being strictly logical (e.g., buying a car), we often act on inner emotional factors we aren’t consciously aware of. That doesn’t let us “off the hook” for our choices, but it helps to explain Paul’s cry—“I’m a miserable human being.” When has the realization that you’ve fallen short of God’s (and your) ideal made you feel miserable? At those times, don’t forget what followed in Paul: “Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Prayer
Lord, I often wish you would just “flip a switch” and wipe out all the inner flaws I struggle with. Give me persistence to walk with you each day, growing the kind of character no flip of a switch could give me. Amen.
GPS Insights
Randy Greene
Randy Greene, who served in the Communications ministry as the Digital Media Specialist, wrote today's Insights in 2016. Then he helped develop and maintain the church’s family of websites, including posting the daily GPS e-mails. Today he is a Christian writer and digital marketer.
Today’s reading is a tough one for me. I tend to be hyper-rational, so when I think about a disconnect between what I want to do versus what I actually do, my immediate instinct is to tell myself, “Suck it up, Randy! Mind over matter! If your flesh doesn’t want to cooperate, just force it into submission!”
That’s an easy thing for me to tell myself when I’m considering sin as this vague, abstract idea, but when I start plugging in the individual sins that I struggle with, I am struck with the reality of what Paul is saying.
“I know I should respond with grace when someone yells at me,” Paul says, “but when I’m caught in the moment, I respond with defensiveness and anger anyways.”
“I know that I should be engaged in intentional community with my neighbors,” he confesses, “but when I get home from work, I’m so tired… and the weekends are the one time I get to relax… and I’m not much of an extrovert anyway, so I’ll just wait for my neighbors to come to me.”
As I think about the list of sins that plague me, I begin to despair–just as Paul did. In verse 24 of our passage, he says, “I’m a miserable human being. Who will deliver me from this dead corpse?” (this one’s a real quote, not me putting words in Paul’s mouth). But that’s when I remember, just as Paul did, that the grace of God covers me. No matter how often I fail or how far I fall, the steadfast love of God draws me close. God loves me, wraps me in his arms and calls me his beloved child–even in the midst of my flaws.
© 2025 Resurrection: A United Methodist Church. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Peterson, Eugene H., The Message Numbered Edition Hardback. Navpress. Kindle Edition.
