Read

Romans 7:21–22 “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.”

Think

There’s a strange moment in the life of every believer when you realize that knowing the right thing doesn’t automatically lead to doing it. You’ve read the Scripture. You’ve heard the sermon. You’ve made the plan. But when the moment comes, when you’re tired or tempted or triggered, something rises up in you that wants to go the other direction.

Paul names that experience here. “Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.” That’s not poetic exaggeration. That’s an honest description of what it feels like to be a believer in a broken world, carrying both the Spirit of God and the remnants of a sinful nature. There’s a holy longing and a lingering resistance living in the same body.

This isn’t just a struggle with external temptations. Paul says it’s a law at work. Something consistent. Something reliable in its resistance. You make progress in one area, and sin shows up in another. You’re walking in obedience, and out of nowhere, bitterness flares or pride creeps in. It’s not random. It’s part of the human condition.

And Paul gets even more personal. “In my inner being I delight in God’s law.” This isn’t a reluctant obligation. This is joy. He isn’t trying to grit his teeth through obedience. He’s saying, deep down, he really does love what God commands. That’s important. Because sometimes we assume that if we sin, we must not truly love God. But Paul says the opposite. His struggle is proof of his new heart. The old Paul never wrestled with this kind of grief. But now, with the Spirit at work in him, the law isn’t just a rule—it’s a delight.

This gives us a more nuanced view of Christian growth. It’s not just about learning to obey. It’s about learning to love what is good, even when your body, mind, or emotions pull the other way. It’s the difference between legalism and transformation. Legalism tries to control behavior without changing the heart. But real spiritual growth begins with desire.

If that’s true, then discipline is not the goal. It’s the byproduct. You don’t become holy by focusing on self-control. You grow in holiness by learning to enjoy God. Self-control without joy leads to exhaustion. Joy without self-control leads to chaos. But when you delight in God’s law, your actions begin to align with your affections.

That’s why this passage is so powerful. Paul is not just saying, “Try harder.” He’s saying, “I want to do what’s right, and I still fail. But I also know that something has changed in me. I delight in God.” That inner delight is not something Paul manufactured. It’s the work of the Spirit. And if you’re a believer, that same Spirit is alive in you.

There’s a reason self-help strategies only get us so far. You can download the app, read the book, block the website, set the alarm, and still fall back into sin. Because at the end of the day, behavior flows from desire. And desire doesn’t change just because you want it to. Desire is shaped. Formed. Redirected. And that takes time. That takes grace. That takes God.

This doesn’t mean we give up on self-control. It means we stop worshiping it. We stop believing that white-knuckled effort is the same as holiness. Real change happens when the delight in your inner being begins to overrule the desire of your flesh. It’s a slow battle, but it’s a real one. And it’s happening whether you feel it or not.

Sometimes it helps to picture it like music. If sin is a song you used to sing by heart, God’s Spirit is now teaching you a new melody. At first, it feels awkward. You miss notes. You slip into old rhythms. But over time, your ear tunes to something better. You find yourself humming the new melody. You crave it. You chase it. And eventually, the old song loses its pull.

Paul says evil is right there with him, but he also says delight is right there within him. Both are present. Both are active. The difference is which one you feed. Delight in God’s law is not something you fake. It’s something you cultivate. Through prayer. Through Scripture. Through community. Through quiet surrender.

The question isn’t whether temptation will show up. It’s which voice you’ll listen to when it does. And more often than not, the strength to say “no” will come from a deeper “yes”—the yes to God’s presence, God’s truth, and God’s better way.

You may still feel the pull of your old patterns. But if you love God’s law, even a little, that’s grace already working in you. That desire didn’t come from you. It came from him. And he will not stop the work he started.

Apply

Take time today to ask yourself honestly: “What do I really delight in?” If obedience feels like a burden, ask God to grow your desire for what is good. Write down one area where you want to not only do the right thing but actually want the right thing. Bring that to God as a prayer and a process.

Pray

God, I want to do good, but I feel the weight of temptation right beside me. Thank you that you see both the struggle and the desire. Grow in me a deeper delight in your Word, in your ways, and in your presence. Let my joy in you become stronger than the pull of my flesh. Teach me to want what is good and help me follow through when it’s hard. In Jesus’ name. Amen.