Matthew 26:41
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Jesus was coming to the end of His time on earth. He knew that his death was imminent. He also understood that the only way He could make it through this time when He paid for the sins of all mankind was to spend time praying before the all-important act.
Jesus told the disciples to watch with Him. In other words, He was telling them that they needed to spend time in prayer if they were going to come through this time properly. When Jesus came back from praying, He found the disciples asleep and He said, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He was saying that the disciples wanted to pray, but their flesh did not want to pray.
Have you found yourself in the same shoes as the disciples? Have you found yourself wanting to do right, but not really wanting to do what it takes to do right? The difference between the disciples and Christ was that Christ not only wanted to do right; He did right. The disciples allowed their flesh to dictate what they did, which is why they didn’t do what they wanted to do. There are a couple lessons from this statement that can help you when you want to do right, but you don’t want to do right.
First, you must always remember that the flesh is weak. The flesh will never want to do what the Scriptures tell you to do. If you let your flesh dictate what you do, you will never find yourself doing right. Oh, you may sporadically do right, but you won’t do right all the time.
Second, the desire to do right does not mean you are right. The fact that the disciples wanted to do right did not make them do right. It is wonderful to have a desire to do right, but at some point you need to turn the desire into action. The desire to do right without the action to do it always ends in failure. Many feel spiritual because they desire to do right, but you are no different from the person who doesn’t desire to do right if you don’t do what you want to do.
Third, the key to doing what you want to do when you don’t want to do it is to let the Holy Spirit control your spirit, and then your spirit will dictate to your flesh what to do. Holy Spirit fulness is the key to turning the desire to do right into action. When the Holy Spirit dictates to your spirit, and your spirit dictates to your flesh is when you do what you are supposed to do. Anytime you get this pattern out of order is when the flesh wins.
The desire to read the Scriptures daily is a great desire, but you will only read them daily if you yield to the Holy Spirit. Your spirit is not enough to make your flesh do right; your spirit must be controlled by the Holy Spirit if your flesh is going to submit to the desire to do right. Many desire to go soul winning weekly, but fail because they are not controlled by the Holy Spirit. Many intend to be faithful to all their church services, but they fail because their spirit is not controlled by the Holy Spirit, resulting in their flesh winning the battle.
My friend, let the Holy Spirit control you. Yield to the Holy Spirit daily and every minute of the day. You cannot win the war against the flesh without yielding your spirit to the control of the Holy Spirit.
