"I didn't do it, my hands did it."

Faith Filled Thoughts
February 16th, 2009
By Connie Ciccone
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Scripture: Romans 7:19 "For the good that I would do, I do not: but the evil which I would not do, I do."

I was very amused with a statement made by my young great niece. Instead of drying her hands on the towel that was next to sink in the bathroom, she hurried to the den and dried them on the decorative throw, which was on the couch. When her mom corrected her, she said, "I didn't do it, my hands did it." She explained the situation further by saying, "It was an accident. I didn't know that my hands were doing that." She was unconsciously exercising a bad habit, and because she didn't do it deliberately, she didn't feel responsible for what her hands had done. It was as though her hands were a different entity than the rest of her whole being, so it wasn't her fault that they had accidentally dried themselves on the throw blanket instead of the towel.

This incident sounds humorous to us as adults because we know that we can't get away with putting the blame on our hands or other parts of our body when we do something wrong. We understand that the entire body is involved in our actions and that we have to take responsible for our individual members. Yet, there are probably times in God's eyes that we look much like my great niece did when we try to justify our actions. We have an enemy in our life who tempts us to do wrong. When we find ourselves in financial difficulty, he tells us that it is okay to cheat just a little. He tempts us with lustful thoughts and disguises it as true love. He deceives us into thinking that we can say what we want to say and do what we want to do, and tells us that if it feels good, it must be okay. We speak hurtful words and share rumors, but instead calling it an accident, we try to cover it up by saying, "I really didn't mean to say that." We allow our eyes to linger on offensive scenes and expose our ears to vulgarity, and then dismissed it by declaring, "I couldn't help it, it just flashed across the movie screen."

Paul was a great apostle and wrote most of the New Testament. Yet, we can see from his own words that he struggled with daily challenges just like us. Like Paul, we do things that we don't want to do and we don't do the things that we want to do. We may not be like my great niece and issue a disclaimer for our misconduct by calling it an accident, but sometimes we are not even aware that our actions are displeasing to God because over time our conscious has become seared. David prayed and asked God to point out anything within himself that made God sad. We must do the same. We must allow God to show us our secret sins and then acknowledge that our actions, whether good or bad, are not mere accidents. We need God to remind us not to do the things that we're not supposed to do and then help us do the things that we should do. God is loving and faithful, and He will help us if we ask.

May He Bless You and Keep You Today!

With Great Love
IN HIS SERVICE
Connie
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