You Already Know - So Why Aren’t You Moving?

What would it take for you to finally want what GOD wants more than what you want?

Not do what GOD wants. Not obey. Not comply. Want it. This is a bigger problem than you think. And many are stuck here - are you?

Quick story. I’ve been spending time with someone who is losing everything. Spouse threatening to leave. Job gone. License gone. Addiction running the show.

And this person agrees with everything I say. No pushback. No argument. They nod, say “you’re right,” and go home and do nothing. That’s not rebellion. That’s something else entirely.

Why do intelligent people, people who can clearly see the exit, stand in a burning building?

Solomon didn’t soften his answer. “Like a dog that returns to its vomit, a fool repeats his foolishness.” (Proverbs 26:11 NCV)

The question that verse raises isn’t whether the dog knows better. It’s why the dog goes back. And the answer is uncomfortable. Something in its nature is drawn to it. Something in the dog wants it. That’s not just a dog problem.

The Apostle Paul, the man who wrote half the New Testament, said this: “I do not understand what I do. I do not do what I want to do, and I do the things I hate.” (Romans 7:15 NCV)

This is not a struggling new believer. This is a man who had a face-to-face encounter with the risen Christ. And he said, I do the things I hate. This isn’t a new problem. It isn’t a modern problem. It is a human problem.

A war inside every person between what they know they should want and what they actually want in the moment.

Shame can drive bad choices. Fear can. Guilt, unresolved pain, unforgiveness, all of it can. But underneath every one of those things, there is usually a simpler, harder truth.

We want what we want more than we want what GOD wants.

Take addiction specifically. We think it gives us something. Relief. Escape. A few hours where the weight lifts. GOD is offering sobriety, which means feeling everything you’ve been numbing.

Long term, there’s no comparison. But in the moment it doesn’t feel better. It feels harder. So we choose what we want.

That’s not just weakness. That’s a trust problem. And underneath the trust problem is a belief problem. We don’t fully believe that what GOD promises is actually better than what we’re holding.

This is the oldest lie there is. The serpent didn’t tell Eve that GOD was evil. He whispered something far more dangerous. “God knows that if you eat the fruit…you will be like God.” (Genesis 3:5 NCV)

In other words, do the wrong thing and it will improve your life. We sin because in the moment, we believe it will.

And most of us know it’s not true. We’ve felt the morning after. We’ve watched the relationship deteriorate. We’ve seen the freedom narrow. And we go back anyway.

Solomon described where that road leads. “The cords of his sin hold him fast.” (Proverbs 5:22 NCV)

What starts as a thread becomes a rope. What starts as a choice becomes a chain. Nobody decides to be enslaved. They make a choice. Then another. Then the choice starts creating the enslavement.

Sometimes the most honest thing a person can say isn’t “I’m too afraid.” It’s simply, I don’t want the life GOD is offering. Not yet.

My friend won’t say it out loud. But they’re living it. That is the most dangerous place to be. Not because GOD gives up on you there. He doesn’t. But the longer you stay, the more your desires form around the wrong things.

And the life you were meant to live gets quieter and quieter until you stop believing it was ever real and it’s no longer possible. What a lie.

Jesus lived and died and rose to set us free from exactly this. But freedom has a starting point. And it isn’t a promise. You’ve made those. It isn’t a plan. You’ve made those too.

James said it plainly: “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.” (James 5:16 NCV)

Real confession, the kind that strips away the performance and the fake picture you think you are projecting - “I”m just fine”. Confession doesn’t just tell the truth, it heals.

It’s where everything begins. But confession without repentance will fail.

Honesty is the door. Turning away from the behavior is walking through it. Seeking forgiveness is what keeps you humble enough to stay changed.

So if you’re in that chair today, don’t start with a promise. Don’t start with a plan. Start with one honest sentence. “I want what I want more than I want You. And I can’t change that on my own.”

That’s enough. Because GOD doesn’t just forgive what you’ve done. He can change what you desire. He can make what He’s offering taste better than what you’ve been holding.

But He waits to be asked. That invitation is a prayer. And one honest prayer can be the beginning of a life you stopped believing was still possible.

GOD, go after the want. Not just the behavior. Meet them all the way down where the real war is happening, underneath the habits, underneath the excuses, where something is still drawn to what’s destroying them. Change what they desire. Make sobriety ( or change) feel like freedom, not deprivation. Make honesty feel like relief, not exposure. Make surrender feel like coming home. And let one honest prayer be the beginning of everything.

IJNIP amen ♥️