Born of God

Last night some of my daughter's friends came over and we were talking about 1 John 3:9 which says, "Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God." The obvious question came up: why then do we sin? And, why is it so hard to not sin? (I'm sure I heard that second question even if it wasn't said out loud). I brought up 2 Corinthians 5:21 which says that we are the righteousness of God in Christ. This isn't just a theory, this is reality. In our spirit, we Christians are totally righteous. And our spirit is who we really are. Our flesh isn't who we are. So our tendency is to do what's right, right? And our desire is also to do what's right; everyone seemed to agree on that. Then it should be easy to not sin. Why isn't it?
Let's say I'm angry at someone. I've been there before. Here's where I go wrong: I focus on my irritation and forget about Jesus. We were never meant to live independent of God. It doesn't work to try to do life without God. Adam and Eve could tell you about that. That's why they ended up wearing fig leaves and hiding. They wanted to be like God. So they ate the fruit and the rest is sad sad history. Here's what happens when I turn my attention to Jesus and say, Lord, how do You want to love this person through me? He shows me how precious that person is in His eyes. He shows me what the person needs. He shows me how He meets my need. He lets me see through His loving eyes. And because I know and believe that He has put His love in my heart, I know that I can love instead of spewing anger. This really works.