Key Passage
Then Jesus went back to his followers. He found them sleeping. He said to Peter, “Simon, why are you sleeping? You could not stay awake with me for one hour? Stay awake and pray for strength against temptation. Your spirit wants to do what is right. But your body is weak.”
— Mark 14:37-38 ERV (Read Full Text)
Key Thought
We so often underestimate our own weakness. We know what we want to do and be, but so often we fall far short of that. Our intentions are good, but our follow through is flawed. Thank God for his grace; we can rely on the Holy Spirit to strengthen us and help us.
Prayer
Father, I know that without the help of your Holy Spirit, I will fall way short of what I want to do and who I want to be. Please strengthen me with your might through your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Related Scriptures
Yes, I know that nothing good lives in me—I mean nothing good lives in the part of me that is not spiritual. I want to do the things that are good. But I don’t do those things. I don’t do the good things that I want to do. I do the bad things that I don’t want to do. So if I do things I don’t want to do, then it is not really me doing those things. It is sin living in me that does those bad things. So I have learned this rule: When I want to do good, evil is there with me. In my mind, I am happy with God’s law. But I see another law working in my body. That law makes war against the law that my mind accepts. That other law working in my body is the law of sin, and that law makes me its prisoner. This is terrible! Who will save me from this body that brings me death? God {will save me}! I thank him {for his salvation} through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my mind I am a slave to God’s law. But in my sinful self I am a slave to the law of sin. So now people that are in Christ Jesus are not judged guilty. Why? Because in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit that brings life made you free. It made you free from the law that brings sin and death. The law was without power because the law was made weak by our sinful selves. But God did what the law could not do. God sent his own Son to earth with the same human life that other people use for sin. God sent his Son to be an offering to pay for sin. So God used a human life to condemn (destroy) sin. God did this so that we could be right like the law said we must be. Now we don’t live following our sinful selves. We live following the Spirit.
— Romans 7:18-8:4
So, my brothers and sisters, we must not be ruled by our sinful selves. We must not live the way our sinful selves want. If you use your lives to do the wrong things your sinful selves want, then you will die spiritually. But if you use the Spirit’s help to stop doing the wrong things you do with your body, then you will have {true} life. The true children of God are those people that let God’s Spirit lead them.
— Romans 8:12-14
So I bow in prayer before the Father. Every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name from him. I ask the Father with his great glory to give you the power to be strong in your spirits. He will give you that strength through his Spirit.
— Ephesians 3:14-16
Devotional provided by Heartlight®
© 1996-2016. All rights reserved.
