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

So often as I’ve claimed the grace and forgiveness offered by my Father, I feel like it’s too easy. Even as scripture tells me I am no longer associated with my sin, no longer called to carry the weight, it’s difficult to forfeit my right to criticize myself. I’ve improved significantly, but it remains a tempting option.

“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,” is scriptural and is not an excuse. It’s a lesson in acceptance of your human shortcomings. It’s acknowledging the desire welling inside us to be pleasing to our Father and to love our neighbors (and self) well, while also acknowledging that in this life, our willing spirits are continuously weighted by a weaker vessel. It’s truth when Paul says:

As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ 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 sin living in me that does it. -Romans 7 17:20

Jesus, even in the weakness of His flesh, was obedient in ways I hope I never have to be, yet always hope I could be. Because He was, the weakness of our flesh no longer holds us captive.

It’s not defeatist; It’s relief. It’s a gift; grace at its finest. You can stop striving, because your true identity is in Spirit and that’s the truth. Your “weak flesh” may fail you, but He never, ever will.

YOU, your TRUE, SPIRIT you, will never fail Him either. He made sure of it. <3