Being Good by Steve Shipley

My wife is the most upstanding, moral person that I know. For years I envied her ability to almost always make choices that were in line with God's word. Just knowing what is right is not enough. Posting the ten commandments on your living room wall is not enough. Just like the Apostle Paul struggled with wanting to do the right thing, but often failing, I had my own struggles. And there was my wife. Always in front of me...no apparent struggling, no grappling with scripture or battling in prayer. She just chose to do what was right and not to do what was wrong.

I'd ask her what her secret was and she'd give me a baffled look. She wasn't even aware that she was going through life, for the most part, doing good and refusing to do bad. Why was it that I had to fight so hard to achieve what she found so easy?

I finally realized her secret one day. The desires of her heart were the same as Gods. She wanted what He wanted. My root problem was that I wanted what I wanted. I had desires that were mine alone, very different from the Lords. All I had to do was adopt the desires of God's heart and give up my own and the right choices in life would follow.

Perhaps to some of you, this is no big revelation, but to me it was lifechanging. When I could see God's love for the sinner, sharing my faith not only became easy, but essential. When I felt the Lord's heart break over sin, I became broken and lost any desire to hurt Him or myself that way anymore.

Someone once said, "the national anthem of hell is, ' I Did It My Way', and isn't that the truth. My logic, my carnal mind will only lead to death. I guess that's what the Bible means when it tells us to "take on the mind of Christ." God doesn't want us to DO good, He wants us to BE good.