When we’ve really messed things up, we often run back to rules to re-establish order in our lives. We recommit ourselves to better accountability and stronger practices because we want to avoid the shame of messing things up again.

But new rules and commitments don’t repair what is broken inside of us because all of this depends on ourselves – our own will-power, our own grit. And we all know where we end up when put our faith in ourselves. The Scriptures tell us this is a dead end because each of us resides under the power of sin – a force that overthrows even the strongest among us.

What we need is faith in something else, someone else who’s greater than sin’s might...someone with whom sin doesn’t stand a chance.