It’s never this cut and dry, but it seems that if you wanted to, you might divide down any single decision you make into components.

A decision begins in the mind where the logic of one choice over another is processed. But then the choice moves from the mind into the affections. At this point, you’re not only looking at what you should do, but what you want to do. What you feel or don’t feel. Then the choice moves into the realm of the will where finally a choice is executed, one way or another.

Mind.

Affections.

Will.

Choice.

Now here’s the thing – there is, more times than not, a breakdown in these segments. It’s a point when these things come into conflict with each other. For example, you might know in your mind what the godly choice in a given situation is going to be. It’s clear and straight forward, but your affections have something to say about that. While you might logically know that you should not be angry or that you should apologize, you don’t FEEL like making that choice. You instead feel like exacting revenge. Or giving that person a piece of your mind. Or keeping that money. Or whatever. There is suddenly a conflict when it comes to your will.

That’s not to say it always happens like that. In fact, most of the time when you make a sinful choice, there is afterward sorrow in regard to that choice. That shows that though you might have desired to do the sinful thing, there was at least part of you that wanted to do the right thing. And as time goes on and the Lord applies the good work of the potter to the clay, your desires and affections conform more and more to what your mind might tell you is the right thing.

In fact, you might say that one of the signs of growing in Jesus is the often and further alignment of these areas – the mind, affections, will, and choices. You are, in other words, becoming more whole than ever before.

And yet…

And yet you know as well as I do in the meantime where the struggle comes. It’s the conflict in one of these areas. You know the right thing to do but you don’t want to do it. Or you know the right thing, you want to do it, but you can’t screw up the courage to do so. There is a malfunction of conflict in the process. You become misaligned at some point. So what do you do then?

Well, I suppose you could simply let the process play out, and then repent. When you do, you give thanks for the gospel that makes up for what you lack and is the continued transforming power in terms of your thinking, your emotions, and your will. But perhaps there is yet one element that hasn’t made an appearance yet. It’s the one thing that makes all the difference in the misaligned person. And it’s the one thing that we need until we are indeed perfectly aligned and whole people.

Faith.

You know the right thing but you don’t want to do the right thing. Instead of bending to emotions, you exercise faith. You choose to believe what you know to be true despite what your emotions tell you. And by faith, you choose rightly in the face of the emotions. Or you know what to do and you really want to do it, but instead of bending to fear or timidity, you exercise faith in the great God who is backing you, and you choose to move forward rather than back.

Faith is what accounts for the misalignment. By faith we act even when we are not whole. And we do so over and over again until someday when we won’t need faith any more. Sight will replace the faith we cling to. And then we know. And then we feel. And then we act. Fully whole.