Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Matthew 26:41

We looked at this passage earlier this year when walking through the Book of Matthew. Recall that Jesus went off into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, and returned to find His disciples were asleep.

While it was poignant at the time, it’s certainly applicable today in our crazy busy society where we always need to be entertained. We just have so much going on in the physical world that it’s like we have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when it comes to spiritual things. Our minds rarely take time to relax and calm down for a few moments. We have trouble focusing because there’s so much going on in the natural world.

Or perhaps that’s just me. That’s the pull I feel often.

In a general sense, I understand the line of the hymn:
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.

Still, though, the Lord commands us to watch and pray.

Watch and pray.

We want to pray. We do.
We want to study the Word of God.
We want to be Godly men and women.
We want to do what is right.

But the world pulls us in, first gradually and then incrementally. Before we know it, we are fully enticed, laughing at what we once cried at before.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

We press on.
We stay close to Jesus.
We surrender to His will.
Daily.
Hourly, if necessary.

No one said it would be easy.

But the Holy Spirit will help us as we seek His help to do the things we know that are right to do.