SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/27/2024 10:01 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-5
“Supplication”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
26:39-45a
Message of the verses: “39 And He went a
little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My
Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as
You will." 40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and
said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one
hour? 41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the
spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." 42 He went away again a second
time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I
drink it, Your will be done." 43 Again He came and found them sleeping,
for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them again, and went away and prayed
a third time, saying the same thing once more. 45 Then He came to the disciples
and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting?”
I don’t think that I will ever understand what the
Lord Jesus Christ was going through as seen in these verses. He definitely had the weight of the world on
His shoulders and therefore it was His desire to have His disciples to just
stay awake and pray for Him as He went through this great temptation which I
believe Satan was the one behind. It had
to break His heart when He said to Peter, but also for the benefit of James and
John, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?”
MacArthur
writes “Considering the circumstances, the rebuke was especially mild. It was not Jesus’ purpose to shame the
disciples but to strengthen them and teach them their need for divine
help. “Keep watching and praying” He implored, that you may not enter into
temptation.’
The Greek verbs behind keep watching and praying are
present imperatives and carry the idea of continuous action, indicated in the
NASB by keep. The need for spiritual
vigilance is not occasional but constant.
Jesus was warning His disciples to be discerning enough to know they
were in spiritual warfare and to be prepared by God to resist the
adversary. He was warning them of the
danger of self-confidence, which produces spiritual drowsiness.
“The
only way to keep from being engulfed in temptation is to be aware of Satan’s
craftiness and not only to go immediately to our heavenly Father in prayer when
we are already under attack but to pray even in anticipation of coming
temptation. Peter perhaps first began to
learn that lesson on this night in the garden.
And after serving faithfully as an apostle for many years, he admonished
Christians: ‘Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like
a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour’ (1 Pet. 5:8). He also gave the assurance however that ‘the
Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation’ (2 Pet. 2:9).
“We cannot overcome Satan or the flesh by our own
power, and we risk serious spiritual tragedy when we think we can. When a military observer spots the enemy, he
does not single-handedly engage him in battle.
He simply reports what he saw and leaves the matter in the commanding
officer’s hands. In the same way,
believers dare not attempt to fight the devil but should immediately flee from
him into the presence of their heavenly Father.
As our Lord taught, we are to pray for God not to ‘lead us into
temptation, but deliver us from evil’ (Matt. 6:13).”
Jesus knew that this would be hard to do as He says “the
spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
This is such a truthful statement because when a person is born-again
they receive the Holy Spirit to live within them to guide them, but the problem
is that we are complicated in that we still have the old nature which fights
against us doing the right thing, and so it is our “spirit” which is willing to
do the right thing, but our flesh which can be greatly tempted by the forces of
evil, which is weak, so we are in the need of constant prayer when tempted to
do what is wrong. MacArthur adds “Regenerated
people who truly love God have a desire for righteousness and they can claim
with Paul that they genuinely want to do good.
But they also confess with Paul that they often do not practice in the
unredeemed flesh what their regenerated spirits want them to do. And, on the other hand, they sometimes find
themselves doing things that, in the
inner redeemed person, they do not want to do (Rom. 7:15-29). Like Paul, they discover that ‘the principle
of evil is present in [them],’ that there is a law of sin within their fleshly
humanness that wages war against the law of righteousness in their redeemed minds (vv. 21:23).’”
Paul goes on to say that in light of that troublesome
and continuing conflict as he lamented, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set
me free from the body of this death?” He
then goes on to answer his own question by writing “Thanks be to God through
Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the
one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other,
with my flesh the law of sin (vv. 24-25).
This shows us that the only source of victory is the power of Jesus
Christ.
I
am not sure but perhaps I can finish this rather long section in the next SD.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: The only source of victory is the power of
Jesus Christ!
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I
am trusting the Lord to find a doctor for my wife which will prescribe an MRI
so that we can find out what is going on with the rapid loss of her
hearing. This is something that is
troublesome to both of us, especially her as it could be very serious.
Prayers are appreciated greatly!
5/27/2024 10:38 AM
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