Why did Jesus tell His disciples, \u2018Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak\u2019<\/i>? Because He knows that without the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, we\u2019re not equal to the temptations that come our way. <\/p>\n
Jesus didn\u2019t doubt the disciples\u2019 love for Him or their willingness to serve Him, but He knew they couldn\u2019t do it in their own strength. And you can\u2019t either. When you fight the flesh in the power of the flesh, you end up fighting yourself\u2014and you lose every time. <\/p>\n
Note the words \u2018lest you enter into temptation.\u2019<\/i> You\u2019ll never be exempt from temptation, but you don\u2019t have to \u2018enter into\u2019<\/i> it. Indeed, your regenerated spirit can\u2019t<\/b> \u2018enter into\u2019<\/i> it because sin has no appeal to it. But your unregenerated \u2018flesh\u2019 will always be attracted to sin. <\/p>\n
And becoming a Christian increases the frequency, variety, and intensity of the temptations you face. Why? Because Satan, \u2018the tempter\u2019<\/i>, doesn\u2019t give up control easily. He will fight you constantly, and on different fronts. The Bible speaks of \u2018manifold temptations.\u2019<\/i> (1 Peter 1:6 KJV) The word \u2018manifold\u2019<\/i> means there are \u2018many kinds\u2019 of temptation. <\/p>\n
What\u2019s the answer? \u2018Manifold grace\u2019<\/i>! (1 Peter 4:10 KJV) The moment temptation rears its head, and before you have time to \u2018enter into\u2019<\/i> it, draw on God\u2019s grace. How do you do that? Jesus said, \u2018Watch and pray.\u2019<\/i> The Living Bible says, \u2018Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you.\u2019<\/i> <\/p>\n
Sheep don\u2019t have the strength or skill to overcome the wolf. But they have the strategy! They just draw close to the Shepherd and He deals with the wolf. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Why did Jesus tell His disciples, \u2018Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak\u2019? Because He knows that without the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, we\u2019re not equal to the temptations that come our way. Jesus didn\u2019t doubt the disciples\u2019 love for Him or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}