Luke 26:41 (NLT) “Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”

The time was nearing for Jesus to be arrested, tried, and crucified, and Jesus sensed it in His Spirit. Judas had left the last supper that the disciples would have together with Jesus, bent on turning him in to the Jewish leaders and authorities. Jesus’ reaction was to do what He always did through every facet of His life here on earth: He prayed. He went to the Garden of Gethsemane and had the disciples sit down to wait for Him while He went a little further on to pray. He took Peter, James and John with Him to His prayer spot and told them that He was anguished and distressed. They must have been alarmed at hearing Jesus tell them this since He always seemed to be the perfect picture of peace and calm, no matter the situation. He asked them to watch and pray as He knelt a little further away to cry out to the Father in prayer. After about an hour, He went over to the three disciples only to find them sleeping. That's when He challenged Peter saying, "Couldn't you even watch with me for one hour?" He then gave the three disciples the admonition to watch and pray, telling them that the spirit within them would be willing to watch and pray, but their weak body would resist.

We are made up of body, soul, and spirit. Our spirit is the life within us that enables us to connect with God, since He is Spirit. Our soul is who we are: our mind, our will, and our emotions. Our body is what houses our spirit and soul. Because of sin coming into the world through Adam and Eve's disobedience, our bodies (our flesh) have been rendered very weak. While I am certain that Peter, James, and John would have loved to have supported Jesus in His time of distress, their bodies were just too tired. The body also resists anything spiritual. It is weighed down by any thought of spiritual things such as prayer, reading the Word, going to church, etc. It would rather do something else...anything but something good. The Apostle Paul at one point exclaimed, "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24) He was frustrated that he found himself unable to do the good things that he wanted to do because of the weakness of His body. But he found the solution to his dilemma and revealed it to us. It is through Jesus that we can overcome the weakness of the body so that we will not be hindered in the things that our spirit wants to do in seeking and obeying God (Romans 7:25).

It's good for us to know what we are up against so that we will not be held hostage by our weak bodies that would hinder the good things that the Lord Jesus wants to do in us and through us. That warning that Jesus gave to His disciples is for us as well. It would be good for those of us that love Jesus to know that our desire to pray and seek the Lord with all of our heart will be opposed by the enemy from within us: our very own flesh. It is good to know that when you wake up in the morning, you might not feel like going to God in prayer because the body wants more sleep. It's good to know that because then you can ready yourself for it, knowing that if your listen to your body, it will lead you away from the Lord and into lots of trouble. Let's do what Jesus said that we should do. Let's watch and pray knowing that our spirits within us desire to be in fellowship with God while our bodies will resist it. As we pray, let's ask the Lord Jesus to deliver us so that we can experience the victory in our lives that our willing spirits long for.

Pastor Joey Vazquez