“The years teach much which the days never know.”
RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Just prior to the arrest of Jesus He went to the garden of Gethsemane with Peter, John, and James and prayed. Share this scripture with me.

He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.”
Then He came and found them sleeping and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
MARK 14:35-38 NKJ

As I study this portion of Scripture this morning, I zero in on “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” I notice that the English word spirit is not capitalized so I take it not to mean the Holy Spirit. As I go the original Greek word use I am able to get a clearer understand of what Jesus meant. The Greek word is pneuma. We get our medical term pneumonia from this word. The Greek word comes from a root word meaning current of air, breath, or a breeze. It also means spirit as in a ghost, or what would be considered the rational soul of humans. It also has a meaning of the mind, and in this instance I feel this is what Jesus meant. The reason that I say this is because it was late at night and the disciples had had a long day with the preparation for the Passover meal and the actual serving and eating of the meal. Last year I had an opportunity to take part in a Jewish Passover meal and it was an all day occasion. The eating of the meal took around three hours itself. This was not fast food. Jesus had taken the three disciples to a place by themselves, and asked that they would watch and pray for a short while. Their bodies were so exhausted that they dozed off. Have you ever had an occasion where you should stay awake but your old eyelids droop more and more and eventually, you loose consciousness and drift off into sleep. Sure, we all have. Our mental facilities want to stay awake, but our body, our flesh, has a way of pulling us the direction it wants. Jesus understood this and that is why after He found them sleeping the second time He said, “Sleep on.” The lesson that I learn from this is that I must prepare my mind for the tug of the flesh, and it will tug from time to time. I am a delivered alcoholic and drug addict, and I still need to sure up my mind daily with the realization that the flesh has a power pull on the mind if allowed. That is why I choose to ally my mind, soul, emotions, memory, and will, with the Holy Spirit of God. In any battle it is wise to have allies to help overcome the enemy. Today I choose the Holy Spirit, and God will do for me what I could not do for myself………………………JRE

“We can go through all the activities of our day in joyful awareness of God’s presence with whispered prayers of praise and adoration flowing continuously from our hearts.”
RICHARD J. FOSTER

“Love and tolerance of others is our code.” Alcoholics Anonymous, page 84