Sunday Reading: Matthew 26:39-41
Key Verse: Matthew 26:41
41 Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Devotion:
Jesus’ words to the disciples as they entered into the garden were that they should watch and pray so that they would not be tempted. We live as corrupt people in a corrupt world where we are always surrounded by temptation; if we do not sit up, watch and pray, we will find very quickly that giving in to those temptations then becomes the normal way. No matter how much we say that we will never go down that path, that we will not give in, when push comes to shove we find that just as Jesus described, our spirit may well be willing, but our flesh is the weak point.
Giving in to temptation is going to happen to all of us. It is not something that we will be able to totally avoid because we are weak. But with a few moments of reflection, with a bit of a watchful eye, and with careful steps we will be able to recognise those temptations when they do come up. Does that then mean that we can avoid them? Well, we can try, and try we should; but unfortunately we will still give in to some of them because of our weak sides.
Christ wants us to remember just how powerful prayer is and that is something that I would like to focus on this week. I suppose it will be something like “if we rest a week we will become weak, but if we watch and pray a week we will become stronger”. It is that prayer that will strengthen us as well as the grace and mercy of Christ because when we do pray and see how He is willing to answer our prayers we then become stronger within ourselves because we can know that what we are doing is producing results. When we then continue, we build up ourselves as well as relying on the strength that God gives us through His guidance and through His Spirit. We cannot do this alone because we are weak…
Points to Ponder:
How often do you watch and pray?
Are you expecting God to answer?