Watch & Pray

Watch And Pray

Matthew 26:41 NKJV
"Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Little more has to be said than this when we consider our lives and what we must do each day, "Watch & pray, lest you enter into temptation."

It's easy to make excuses for why we sin and why we allow ourselves to give in to temptations, but there really is no "good" excuse, is there? Jesus said this to His disciples who slept while He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion. How often do we fall asleep on our Lord? How often do we allow the flesh to rule over our spirit and allow sin to enter our lives? How often do we truly pray to God when we find ourselves tempted to sin?

We must be watchful, be aware of the danger, awake to the reality of sin ever present around us. We must not engage nor encourage the sin around us, we must speak out against it as we see our Savior and His disciples doing in the New Testament.

We must pray, speak to our Lord sincerely, and lay it all at His feet. He has spoken to us through His word, do we read it, study it, know it, love it? Do we bother to keep up the bi-directional communication with Him - us praying to Him, Him speaking to us through His word?

The Lord said to Cain in Genesis 4:7

"If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

We must rule over this flesh and the desire to sin, else we will be casting in our lot with the deceiver, satan, rather than our dear Savior, Jesus. Which will it be for you and me today? Satan or Jesus; flesh or spirit; damnation or salvation? Yes, it really is that clear cut, but the question for us is will we have our eyes open to see the way of escape from sin or will we fall asleep on our Lord (1Cor.10:12-13)?

Will we fall asleep on our watch and give in to sin? Doing this is akin to putting Him back up to be crucified again because of our unwillingness to leave the ways of the flesh; in effect we make His sacrifice for our sins as nothing in our lives (Heb.6:4-6; 10:26-31).

Friends, leave the ways of the flesh, I beg you. May we all focus on being faithful to our Lord. Serve the Lord, and Him alone. Don't make any provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts (Rom.13:14). Resist the devil, draw near to God (Jms.4:7).

"The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Understand all this means. Because our flesh is weak, we must be aware to the dangers of it. It's easy to give in, but we must control ourselves. It's easy to live by the flesh, but we must decide to do the hard thing; we must live in the spirit. We must shed the desire to serve self and instead serve God and others. We must follow in the footsteps of our Savior if we ever intend to make it to Heaven. Friends, will you join me today in watching and praying? Will you stay awake, live in the spirit, and leave the ways of the flesh? Let none of us leave our Savior, may we stay true to Him whatever the cost.