Sermon – The Struggle Within
Romans 7:14-25
Sermon Preached by The Rev’d Tracey Gracey on Sunday 5 July, 2026
“There was a little girl who had a little curl,
right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good, she was very, very good,
but when she was bad, she was horrid.”
Do you remember this poem? I do.
I can remember as a young child having a little Golden Book that told the story of this little girl.
As you read through the story, it seemed as though there were two little girls.
The first little girl was very, very good. She always did the right thing. She followed the rules. She listened carefully. She tried her best. She always seemed to know exactly what she should do.
The second little girl was quite different. She didn’t follow instructions. She did the opposite of what she was told. She seemed to create chaos wherever she went.
But when you reached the final page, you discovered there weren’t two little girls at all.
There was only one.
As a child, I remember feeling exactly like this little girl.
I knew what it was like to want to do the right thing, yet a lot of the time I found myself doing the wrong thing. I wanted to be kind, to be good, to please those around me. But still, I would do the very things I knew I shouldn’t.
Paul, in his letter to the Romans, describes this same struggle.
The struggle of every human heart.
The struggle between the person we hope to become and the person we sometimes discover ourselves to be.
Many of us want to be patient, and we lose our temper.
We want to forgive, but we hold onto resentment.
We want to be generous, but we fear not having enough.
We want to trust God, but we find ourselves holding on to our worries.
We want to love others, but sometimes we find ourselves judging them instead.
When St Augustine read Paul’s words, he recognised the same struggle within himself. In his autobiography, The Confessions, he reflects on why our will can so often be divided. He writes: If I decide to stand up—I stand. If I decide to pick up the kettle—my hand reaches out almost without thinking. But when I say to myself, “Only one more piece of chocolate,” something entirely different happens. Suddenly, my own will seems to argue with itself. Part of me says, “That’s enough.” Another part quietly replies, “Perhaps just one more.”
Augustine came to realise that his own will was divided: one drawing him towards the person he longed to become, the other pulling him somewhere else.
He realised that the struggle was not simply between right and wrong. It was a struggle within his own heart.
He concluded that no amount of determination alone could heal that division. Because the problem isn’t simply that we lack willpower. The problem is that we cannot transform ourselves by trying harder.
Paul reaches exactly the same conclusion. “Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
Notice that Paul doesn’t ask “What?” He asks, “Who?” He needs someone beyond himself.
He needs Jesus Christ.
And that is his turning point. That is where Paul discovers God’s grace.
Some people think that grace is God simply overlooking our failures and that our struggles don’t matter.
Grace is God meeting us exactly where we are.
God’s grace does not ignore our struggles. God’s grace meets us in the midst of them. Grace is God saying, “I know you. I know the person you long to become. And I am with you.”
Paul profoundly experienced this grace in Jesus: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
For it is in Jesus that God’s grace is revealed.
Grace is God drawing us into a relationship that slowly changes us from within. As we come to know Christ, as we learn from Christ, as we open our hearts to Christ, we find ourselves slowly becoming the people we long to be.
Not because we are trying harder, but because we are learning to live in a Christlike way and manner.
And Jesus openly extends this invitation to us in today’s gospel: Come to me…Learn from me.”
For it is in knowing Christ, learning from Christ, and allowing his life to shape ours, that we slowly become the people we long and desire to be.
Amen.