Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Ezekiel 13-18
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Matthew 26:40-41
When He came back to the disciples, He saw that they were asleep. Peter awoke a little less confident and slightly chagrined.
Jesus (to Peter): So you couldn’t keep watch with Me for just one short hour? Now maybe you’re learning: the spirit is willing, but the body is weak. Watch and pray and take care that you are not pulled down during a time of testing.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Caught with his hand in the cookie jar! Jesus asked his closest friends to help Him pray during this darkest hour of His life. One of His own was about to betray Him. Jesus knew the guards were on their way to arrest Him. The cross loomed in the distance. His death was imminent.
“Please, watch and pray with me for the next hour to help Me through this awful time in my life.”
Sounds like a simple request, doesn’t it? But Peter, James and John didn’t fulfill their mission. They let the food in their stomachs and the late hour of the evening get to them and they slept while their Master prayed. He comes back and the sound of His sandals on the gravel path arouses Peter. Oops! I was supposed to be praying, not sleeping. Caught!
We’re all guilty. We all get caught. No matter how stealthy you think you might be in covering your actions or hiding your schemes, you can’t. Everything eventually comes out in the open. Just take a look at what happens in the media today with our political candidates. If you think you can hide your past, just look at what comes out from the past on these men and women that want to lead our country. The opposing party is pulling out dirt from every aspect of each others lives. From the time they were young adults to yesterday’s twitter post, the latest misstatement, misaligned thought, maligned look, point of arrogance, or down right bad action for which each never takes ownership pops up in the news.
Nothing is ever really hidden. And so Peter, James, and John get caught. But that’s okay. Jesus understands. I think He’s a little disappointed that these three closest friends didn’t have the stamina to pray with Him for even an hour, but even at this late hour of His life, Jesus uses the incident as a teaching point for them. “Now maybe you’re learning: the spirit is willing, but the body is weak. Watch and pray and take care that you are not pulled down during a time of testing.”
So what is the Master telling these three? I’m sure they were thoroughly embarrassed by their inability to stay awake with Jesus. I’m sure they fell over themselves with apologies and truly were sorry for not praying with Him during this hour. I’m sure they promised never to do it again and asked for another chance to redeem themselves even as the night grew longer and darker.
But Jesus understood their position before the coming of the Holy Spirit to live in them and not just with them. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. There are times that we just can’t go on any more. His words remind me of the day I came back from Iraq into our rear headquarters in Dharhan in Saudi Arabia after coalition forces were ordered back in Operation Desert Storm. I told my boss I needed a short nap before I would be much good to him for the next planning phase. I went into the hut several of the medical operations team shared and fell fully clothed into the cot I hadn’t seen in several months to take that short nap. In what a thought was a few minutes, I woke up and discover to my dismay the clock was two hours later than when I laid down. What I didn’t know was a full day had also passed. What I thought was a long two hour nap, was a twenty-six hour exhausted sleep. The spirit was willing, but the body was weak.
I learned that some of the team who held down the rear headquarters while the tactical operations center moved forward checked on me every few hours to make sure I was still breathing, but assumed I needed the sleep and didn’t wake me. I wanted to work as soon as I returned because there was a lot of work to do. But my body said shut down and repair itself after months of twenty-hour days. It just said no more and quit.
God understands our physical limitations. But He also helps us even with those physical limitations. I’m convinced it was His hand on me physically that let me work the grueling schedule I worked in Desert Storm without collapsing until after our return from the front. His sustaining power gave me the strength to endure all those months until my planning skills were no longer immediate concerns for medical support on the battlefield.
We will all face times of testing as the disciples did in the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus and as I did with the constant pressures of planning in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. But prayer was high on my list and I felt the prayers of those who were home lifting me to God both for my safety and my ability to perform my tasks well not even knowing what my tasks might be. I knew friends and family were on their knees with my name on their lips.
Now twenty-five years after that conflict, I lift those planners and service members in my prayers daily. Some of them I know by name. Most are nameless to me, but not to God. Are there times my body fails me? Yes. Just passing my sixty-second anniversary of my birth, my body fails more often than I’d like, but I’ve learned to lean more on God so He can empower my spirit to keep at the fight. How about you?
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