"Watch and Pray!"

“Watch and Pray!”

 

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.  The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”          Matthew 26:41

 

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!   No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.  And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.   But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.        1 Corinthians 10:12-13

 

“WATCH and PRAY!”  This was the command of the Lord Jesus, when He took three of His disciples, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee into the Garden of Gethsemane.  He was asking them to STAY AWAKE and PRAY with Him.  He went a little farther away from them to do His PRAYING.  After a while He went back to where He had left them and found them ASLEEP.  At this MOST CRITICAL time in Jesus’ life, they FELL to the TEMPTATION of the FLESH.   Notice what Jesus told them:  “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”   That is the problem, when dealing with TEMPTATION.  Mankind’s spirit is WILLING to do what is RIGHT, but the FLESH is WEAK and if you are NOT ALERT and PRAYED UP you will FALL to the TEMPTATION.

 

The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Christians in Rome, says:  “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do---this I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is the sin living in me that does it.”  (Romans 7:19-20)   Once a person FALLS into TEMPTATION, they are allowing the desires of the FLESH, (sins) to LIVE in them and they are DEFILING their soul with the vileness of the SINS.  No matter how willing the spirit is, the flesh will fall, when you allow yourself to succumb to the TEMPTATION.

 

But, our Scripture, in 1 Corinthians, tells us that there IS a WAY to OVERCOME TEMPTATION:  No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.   And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”   Jesus’ command to His disciples was to WATCH, or to be ALERT and PRAY, these are the weapons we MUST use in order to KEEP FROM FALLING into TEMPTATION.  When we have it in our HEART, NOT to FALL into TEMPTATION, and are ALERT and PRAYED UP, God is FAITHFUL, and will provide a WAY for us to ESCAPE the TEMPTATION.   Paul says, that there is NO TEMPTATION that has OVERTAKEN YOU except what is COMMON to mankind.  These are TEMPTATIONS that mankind has faced throughout the ages, and they can be met and endured through DEPENDING on GOD’S FAITHFULNESS and by WATCHING and PRAYING. 

 

 If you have NOT given your HEART and LIFE to God, then you are LIVING in SIN and are destined for an ETERNITY in HELL, with ALL of its HORRORS, and NO WAY of ESCAPE.  You habitually FALL to TEMPTATION and are ALLOWING SIN to reign in your life.  God, however, has a PLAN to SAVE you from your SINS and to FREE you from the condemnation of an ETERNITY in Hell.  You MUST TURN AWAY from your sinful lifestyle, and TURN TO God with a TRUE REPENTANT HEART, CONFESSING, your sins to Him and asking Him for His FORGIVENESS, BELIEVING, with ALL your HEART, that Jesus died for YOU, and is ALIVE in Heaven, making intercession for you, before God.  Then ACCEPT His gift of SALVATION, and become a VICTOR over TEMPTATION, SIN and HELL.  Do this NOW, while you still can.  He’s waiting and coming SOON!!!