"The spirit is willing but the body...."

How many times have we used that phrase as an excuse for not being able to do something? Like me...likely many. Or we say, 'my mouth is making promises that my body can't keep!' But I have begun to study this phrase, "The spirit is willing but the body is weak", and want to address it this Sunday as we approach our corporate worship and teaching time.

Just this week a close friend of mine said, "I think it's the other way around....the body is willing but the spirit is weak!" I knew what he was getting at and it's actually the point I want to examine as we contine to investigate this adventure of being "Apprenticed by Jesus". He was saying that the body is designed to be responsive to what the spirit directs, guides, suggests or demands. (The spirit is this case, and especially in this section of scripture from Matthew 26 is not referring to the Holy Spirit, but to the spirit of these men.) It is the spirit that directs the body and therefore if the spirit is conditioned to be dictated to by the body then it's actually the spirit that is weak and then this makes the body even weaker. You know that something here has to change to be a disciple of Jesus that is following hard after him.

I think the body would welcome some dominance by the spirit and some guidelines that would be beneficial to the spirit and the body. It's like deciding to lose weight or prepare your body for a marathon. If I wait until my body tells me it's ready to train, the only marathon I'd be ready to participate in is watching a marathon television series of old shows.

To run a marathon, the body has to be told what to do even when the body doesn't want to do it. They say in running any long distance race, a runner will come to "the wall" where the body says, "that's all!' It is at this point that the spirit, the will, the mind, steps in and says, 'oh no you don't! We didn't come this far to give up now. Get going!' And off the runner goes with the body responding to the direction of the spirit. I know from experience that when you first arrive at this point, it sort of catches you by surprise. After the body says, "I'm Done!', the mind goes, "you're right' we're done! Take a break!" And then you start to walk and rest. But once you've experienced this event, the next time the body is trying to direct the affair, the mind can say, "no! we're going on!" And you know what...... the body keeps going." Why? Because the spirit has been trained to engage in this battle of the wills and has prepared itself to make the decision.

Now take that same illustration and apply it to your sprititual disciplines. Since when was the body supposed to give direction to the spirit? The spirit needs to make up it's mind and get the body out of bed and engaged in the disciplines of a true follower of Jesus and then when it comes time for the body to respond, it is trained in the things of spiritual preparedness.

I want to suggest to you that the phrase used by Jesus in the Garden that was directed to his disciples was not intended to be the last word on this 'spirit and body' discussion.

Study it with me and I'm sure you'll want to re-examine the spiritual disciplines so that your mind and body are trained and prepared to run the race set out before you.

Enjoy the beautiful weather...and decide which comes first...the spirit or the will?
In His Grace,
Pastor Brian