Your Moment at the Well
The Lord’s insight. A weak flesh is a strong enemy of the Spirit.
Matthew 26:41: “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Galatians 5:17: For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
On the night He was betrayed, Jesus asked three of His disciples to sit nearby to watch and to pray while He prayed. He was very sorrowed about what was going to happen. He needed to be strengthened. Praying is what He did to keep from falling to the temptation that comes with sorrow.
Watch with Me and pray. That was Jesus’ request of three of His disciples. Lest you enter into temptation was His warning to His disciples. Jesus knew that the disciples too would be very sorrowful when they saw what was about to happen to Him. He knew the events would cause His disciples to lose hope and to deny Him.
The disciples would have to live with the fact that they denied Him. So, He explained how our flesh and our spirit fight against one another for control of our lives. But the flesh fights dirty. Your flesh doesn’t say you should fight against the circumstances you face. Our flesh fights so that we have a moment where we feel good. Denying Jesus made them feel good in the moment. It made them feel safe.
Today, we must learn to watch and to pray. Watching what is happening around us and praying that the Lord would strengthen us to endure the things we face is the one way we can strengthen our Spirit so that it can help us deny our flesh.
Our flesh does not like surprises; this is one of the reasons the flesh is weak. When we do not get the promotion we wanted at work, we are surprised to learn our boss did not believe we worked hard enough. We must learn to watch how we work. When our family doesn’t want to spend time with us, we are surprised to learn they do not like our attitude. We must watch and pray.
I thank the Lord that I now recognize that the flesh and the spirit are contrary to one another. When we do not pray to be spiritually strong and confident about the things we watch for, we open ourselves to being hopelessly driven by our flesh. Our flesh wants us to give in, but the Spirit wants to give things over to the Lord. Our flesh wants us to feel comfortable, but our Spirit wants us to feel confident. Our flesh wants us to believe what we want but our Spirit wants us to want what the Lord says we should believe.
Watch and pray over your children. They will be better for it. Watch and pray over your marriage. It will be better for it. Watch and pray over your leaders. Everyone will be better for it. While the target of the flesh is the self; the flesh is the main target of our Spirit. Watch and pray so your Spirit can have more dominion over your flesh.
The disciples had told Jesus they were all willing to die for and with Him. But when Jesus was betrayed and arrested, each disciple denied that they even knew Jesus. Watch what you say. Pray about what you have spoken so that you do not fall into the temptation to deny what you said.
Everyone has some type of sin we would like to overcome. Jesus is telling us today in His Word, to watch and pray about the sins you say you will never do. The spirit is willing to walk with you when you say, “Lord, I want to be faithful, help my unfaithfulness.” The flesh is weak and will fall when you say “Lord, I am faithful and will never be unfaithful.”
Watch and pray so you do not fall into the temptation to be tempted.
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