Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41).
“Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). In the moment of His greatest trial, Jesus warns His disciples to “watch and pray, lest they enter into temptation.” He strongly warns them to be vigilant, awake, and watchful, and by extension, He also says to us that we must know the times in which we live; we must discern the moment! Jesus spoke these strong words in the hearing of these three disciples and especially to Peter who had boasted that if all the disciples left Him, he would never! Peter had great confidence in the flesh, but he failed! The scriptures warn us not to have confidence in the flesh, but to put our faith in God! Where is your confidence? Is it in institutions, men, yourself, or in God? These times will reveal the source and object of your confidence. Christ Jesus must be the source and object of your confidence/faith.
We now live in a day scripture calls, “the evil day,” where men are “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). Paul therefore, encourages us to take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. This is not optional!
At the hour of Jesus’ “stress test” in Gethsemane, His three leading disciples were not vigilantly watching! They were not aware of the times, nor discerning the moment, nor ready for godly action. They were weary and sleeping! If we are to be prepared for godly action, we must maintain our vigilance through prayer and faith. “Then He [Jesus] said to them, ‘My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me […] Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?’” (Matthew 26:38,40). These words of Jesus, “watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation” must be our meditation; they must be our rallying cry!