Rom 7:19 (NIV) For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing.

Let’s say we are struggling with a problem concerning forgiveness and we are at the spiritual level of Romans 7:19. What is it we want to do, forgive. What are we not doing, forgiving. Is that going to keep us from spending an eternity with God, no. God has already forgiven us of all our sins. What happens to us as long as we don’t forgive? Our life on this earth is going to be pretty miserable. Rather than God giving us grace each step through our day. He will hold all our mistakes against us. He won’t consider them to be sins; but, He will allow them to hurt the quality of our life here on earth.

We will WANT to forgive; but, we will lack the necessary power from various Biblical truths. We will be asking God to help us forgive; but, we will not YET have the victory over this issue of forgiveness. It will be a real problem and struggle in our life. We may have spent a lot of time with God over it but still can’t seem to forgive some person. It will just be a matter of time and not EVER giving up. Sooner or later, God will honor our WANT or desire and will bring healing in that area of our heart.

There is another person that we need to look at. They think they have the Romans 7:19 problem presented above. They think they are a Christian even though they aren’t doing good things and haven’t stopped doing bad things. For all practical purposes they may look just like a new or untrained Christian who is still STRUGGLING with a lack of forgiveness.

According to Romans 7:19, new Christians start out not doing many good things and haven’t stopped doing bad things; and will continue to do so for as long as they aren’t properly trained in God’s Word. However, if we could join God in looking into this particular person’s heart, we would find one major difference about them. The person who thinks they are a Christian and aren’t will lack the necessary WANT. There is no WANT to do good. There is no WANT to quit doing evil.

The person who lacks the proper WANT will continue REFUSING to forgive rather than praying for a forgiving heart. There will be someone God is asking them to forgive and they won’t even start praying and asking God to help them forgive them. If they were struggling with a deep hatred for someone, but, were WILLING to keep bringing it before God and asking Him for help with it, that would demonstrate the presence of salvation. But, if they refuse to even give God a chance to help them with forgiveness, then they lack the WANT of Romans 7:19. They need salvation; and, you need to try to lead them into God’s ssalvation.