Weakness
[Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." ~~Matthew 26:40, 41]
I've felt like Peter so many times in this part of His life, willing to serve, but so fragile and weak when it comes down to forcing my will to go through with it. The physical body has so much more power over us than we like to admit; the Word says we must "conquer the body," yet we continue to let it hold sway over us. Even in little things, like flipping on the television instead of going for a walk around the block, eating one more piece of turkey over Thanksgiving dinner instead of listening to our bulging stomachs...sleeping in just a few minutes longer instead of getting up to read God's Word.
I've been there so many times, and it discourages me.
But, thank the Lord that He gives us a way out. "Watch and pray." It still requires discipline however. Therein lies the problem. We can't push past our apathy without Divine Intervention, and we can't have Divine Intervention without prayer. It's a viscious cycle, in some ways, but we get the easy end of it; all we have to do is cry. Cry out to the God who saves us and Who has promised that "no temptation shall be greater than you can bear." If prayer and discipline was something we couldn't handle, we wouldn't have to. But we have that struggle, so obviously, we can handle it, and we can overcome it. We just have to remember that we can only do so with the help of God, not of our own strength, for our flesh is weak. Thank God that He is strong.
I've felt like Peter so many times in this part of His life, willing to serve, but so fragile and weak when it comes down to forcing my will to go through with it. The physical body has so much more power over us than we like to admit; the Word says we must "conquer the body," yet we continue to let it hold sway over us. Even in little things, like flipping on the television instead of going for a walk around the block, eating one more piece of turkey over Thanksgiving dinner instead of listening to our bulging stomachs...sleeping in just a few minutes longer instead of getting up to read God's Word.
I've been there so many times, and it discourages me.
But, thank the Lord that He gives us a way out. "Watch and pray." It still requires discipline however. Therein lies the problem. We can't push past our apathy without Divine Intervention, and we can't have Divine Intervention without prayer. It's a viscious cycle, in some ways, but we get the easy end of it; all we have to do is cry. Cry out to the God who saves us and Who has promised that "no temptation shall be greater than you can bear." If prayer and discipline was something we couldn't handle, we wouldn't have to. But we have that struggle, so obviously, we can handle it, and we can overcome it. We just have to remember that we can only do so with the help of God, not of our own strength, for our flesh is weak. Thank God that He is strong.
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