I ran into a guy a while back that I knew in the 60s. During our conversation, I asked if he was married and he said, “Yes, 5 times.”
“Good grief,” I said, “why did you get married so many times?” And he said, “It seemed like the thing to do at the time.”
Isn’t that the way life is? This is often the answer when asked why a person drove drunk, “It seemed like the thing to do at the time.” When a unwed girl finds out she is pregnant. When a drug addict faces the judge on a possession charge.
Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
My body, mind, and emotions desire to rule me. What “I think” is more important to me than what anyone else thinks. I think that what I think is the truth, sometimes even when I am proven wrong. My feelings or emotions are even more important to me than what I think. And it seems as though what my body is telling me is more important that what I read in the Holy Bible.
This was Paul’s dilemma too. He tells us in Romans chapter 7 that the very thing his body wanted to do was what his spirit was telling him not to do. People read this passage and feel like Paul is saying there is no hope to be able to overcome trials and temptations while we live here on this earth. They feel that they will always be a sinner, because they cannot resist temptations as long as they still live in this body. However what Paul is saying is that this is the way it is before Christ, but after we are born again, we can be conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Your spirit through the power of the Holy Spirit is always trying to tell you the right thing to do. Add to that reading the Bible, God’s Word; praying; attending Bible study and church; and contact, fellowship, and accountability with other believers.
Remember, what “seems the right thing to do at the time” might be the wrong thing.