Maybe it really IS hard to put away those toys…

I honestly can’t even remember what my daughter was doing, or why I had asked her to  hand me the shoes. She was always very eager to help, but there was also those days of testing to see what she could and couldn’t do. This, to my dismay- was one of those days.

I groaned inside as I realized the battle that this minuscule task would take. What should have took 2 seconds to pick up a pair of shoes and hand them to me turned into a half an hour of discussions and discipline.

We finally returned back to the shoes-what seemed like an eternity later, and my daughter obeyed this time- picking up her shoes from the floor and handing them to me. In my exhaustion and (let’s be honest) sass, I started to say, “Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?!?!” But I stopped myself short as I listened to the words running through my head.

The truth is- it is really hard to get over the selfishness in our hearts- it’s impossible.

The truth is- it was really hard to pick up those shoes. It is really hard to get over the selfishness in my heart, to get past the stubborn will that wants things done my way. God’s Word even says it’s impossible to do on my own. God calls us slaves to sin (Rom 6:17) and says that that selfishness was at work in me to bear fruit to death (Rom 7:5). Harsh words like that can’t leave you feeling anything but crushed at the task ahead.

Oh but friend, that’s when we rejoice in this news. That we can run to an old, blood-stained cross. It is hard to pick up those shoes. To give my time. To give up my way. So hard. Impossible. But there was a perfect God who came to live, to die, to rise again, and to triumph over it all. Because without him, we cannot.

Romans 6:6 “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”

May we not underestimate the power or depravity of the sin in our hearts lest we give in to the thoughts that we can do it on our own. Oh- but if we are in Christ- let us likewise not underestimate the even greater power that delivered us from that bondage- and the new life to which he has called us. Friend, it is hard- but because of Christ’s work alone- it is no longer impossible.