What is it about saying I’m sorry that literally feels like pulling teeth? Sometimes, I swear, working up the nerve to say I’m sorry first feels like I have to physically pull the words up out of my gut. As I sit in one such moment, the words of Romans 7 feel all too real.

‍

“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” (Rom. 7:21-24).

Just say you’re sorry, the Spirit whispers to me. There’s freedom there. But the war continues to rage between my pride and the Spirit in me that delights in God’s law. I feel Paul’s words in this moment so strongly: What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me?

‍

Where do you feel these words in your own life today? Where in your life do you wrestle the most? In a moment of prayer this morning, I encourage you to let Jesus into that place.

‍

See, God has made good on his promise to give us a new heart - one that is soft and governed by his Spirit (Ezek. 36:26). The answer to Paul’s rhetorical questions can bring us hope in the areas of our lives that feel like a war within: “Thanks be to God,” Paul says, “who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:25a).

‍

Do you know what Jesus’ name means in its original Hebrew? Yeshua - it means deliverer.

‍

So when the war rages today, whatever it is in your life that feels like pulling teeth, call on your Deliverer to make good on his promise of rescue, his promise that the new heart wins, that sin is no longer your master.

‍

Call on his name now - Yeshua. My Deliverer.