I Just Can’t - It’s Not In Me

What can you do and do a crappy job at it?

Have you ever met someone who simply can’t do a job halfway? Someone who, no matter what they touch, has to do it well? It’s like excellence is wired into them. It’s built in. They couldn’t slack if they tried.

The Apostle John says something similar happens to a person who belongs to God.

“Those who are God’s children do not continue sinning, because the new life from God remains in them. They are not able to go on sinning, because they have become children of God.” (1 John 3:9 NCV)

I don’t think he is saying believers never sin. He’s saying something inside you and I has changed so deeply that we can’t keep walking in sin and stay comfortable. It’s not in you and I anymore. But here’s the question - Is this true about you and I?

Now, I’m not writing as some holy-roller. I have a long way to go. But for sure, the Holy Spirit disrupts the old patterns.

He disturbs the excuses. He won’t let you and I enjoy what once numbed us. We may try to keep going, but the new life inside us keeps pulling us back.

I’m not positive how all of this works, but I know this:

When you and I possess the Holy Spirit, our conscience simply cannot keep sinning and be at peace. We must confess. We must repent. We must seek forgiveness. Not because we are trying harder, but because God has rewired our heart.

And here’s the surprising part. This internal tug is one of the greatest evidences that you and I actually belong to Him.

The world can indulge in sin and feel nothing. But a child of God tries, and something inside feels off, wrong, heavy. Not because God is condemning us, but because He’s transforming us.

Said another way. Sin used to feel normal. Now it feels foreign. Sin used to offer comfort. Now it steals your peace. Sin used to be who you were. Now it fights who you’ve become.

So what does this mean in a practical, Monday-morning way?

It means when we feel convicted, we’re not failing, God is fathering us. When you and I can’t rest until we repent, that’s the Spirit protecting us. When we confess quickly and turn back, that’s evidence of a new nature. When we no longer tolerate in ourselves what we used to excuse, that’s spiritual growth.

We aren’t perfect. But we are being perfected. We still stumble. But we cannot stay down. Because God’s life won’t let us.

The question isn’t whether you occasionally fall. It’s whether you can fall and stay there.

A believer may touch sin… but they cannot live in it. Not anymore. The Holy Spirit won’t allow it, and your new nature can’t endure it.

And maybe that’s the real encouragement today for us all:

If you ever wonder whether God is in you, look at the sins you can no longer enjoy. Look at the thoughts that bother you now. Look at the repentance that rises faster than it used to.

That’s not you trying harder. That’s God making you new.

“They are not able to go on sinning.” Not because of willpower, but because of the work of Christ in you and me.

And that’s why we can say, with honest gratitude:

“I just can’t… it’s not in me anymore.”

GOD, please grow me, change me and give me a love for you. Not just what you can do for me. Help me love what you love. IJNIP amen ♥️