Romans 7: 15-25 – I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

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? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

What I want to do, I can’t.

What I despise, I do.

What kind of creature am I?

What kind of hopeless fool?

The good my soul desires

Seems just outside my grasp.

While selfish thoughts consume my mind,

Though I don’t even ask.

Though I wish my motives pure

Sometimes they’re all but that.

The halo slips, the angel’s gone

And all that’s left’s a brat.

The words I choose, the things I do

The attitudes I possess

Can quickly shift to bad from good

And to good from best

I don’t understand the workings

Of the mind behind this heart

So I give it to Your able hands

With all it’s broken parts

May your thoughts become my own

Your every motive mine

May my heart break where Yours has bled

My life by You defined

You, my Jesus, made me

You know that I am dust

And yet You fiercely love me

So to you I now entrust

This heart that tends to wander

This mind that wonders, too.

This soul that longs to get it right

I give them all to you.