You know that feeling when you’re beyond frustrated? Not with your job. Not with your kids. Not even with your evening commute in craazzy traffic. But with…wait for it… yourself.

Lately, I’ve been increasingly irritable and cranky and annoyed with me, myself, and I. How could I have eaten that many cookies and cake in one evening? Why did I spend so much time mindlessly scrolling Instagram? Oh, I skipped my workout for three days in a row… wonderful! How could I have procrastinated on that project so.many. times? Did I actually yell at that volume and snap without reason? Uuugh.

Self-condemnation starts playing a deafening solo in my ear.

I’m never going to get this right.

Why do I even bother?!

I should have given up long ago.

And, yeah, those shameful words scream in my ear—while I stuff my emotions down with dark-chocolate peanut butter cups (my latest go-to for my meltdown moments).

But here’s what the Lord did for irritable, cranky, annoyed-with-myself me. He showed me someone from Scripture who seemed fairly frustrated with himself too.

In Romans 7, Paul says this: “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”

Paul got it. He didn’t have Insta. He didn’t have dark-chocolate indulgences. He didn’t skip leg day. I don’t know what he struggled with. But he got it.

But God didn’t just lead me to this passage and say, “Hey, even Paul messed up. You can feel better about yourself.”

Nope. God is too good, too wise, too kind to just slap a Unicorn band-aid on my frustration. Instead, He shows me the way out.

In fact, He is the way out.

When Paul rhetorically asks: “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”, he also immediately responds with an emphatic note of praise. “Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

All of us know what it feels like to be frustrated by our failures and frailties.

But have we, like Paul, grasped the wonder of being delivered from the trap of sin?

Can we, like Paul, declare over ourselves that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Let that sink in for a moment.

No condemnation.

That rules out self-condemnation.

That cancels beating yourself up.

That overrides the soundtrack of negativity.

Of course, it doesn’t say, “no conviction.” The Holy Spirit convicts us in order that we might grow in holiness.

Conviction doesn’t breed frustration. It fosters faith.

Friend, if like me, you find yourself in a rut of pessimism, first know that the Enemy wants to trip you up and leave you gasping for air.

But remember, when you fall down, it’s a much shorter route to get on your knees! So, may you and I come to Him on bended knee. May we seek His face and His forgiveness.

The answer to frustration is not just to dust off and keep going. The answer is to go to His glorious Throne of grace to receive mercy and help in our time of need. Having faith doesn’t mean “getting it right” all the time. It means turning our eyes on Jesus.  The One who hears our frustrations and our tangle of feelings. The One who is our hope. The One who is the Way, the truth, and the life.

 

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