“The Spirit Indeed Is Willing, but the Flesh Is Weak.”
In essence, this is actually the same as: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is strong.” The flesh is weak when it comes to wanting to and accomplishing the good; i.e., it is powerful and strong in resisting the good.
It is vital to come as close as possible to the truth. What is the truth in this case? The truth is that it is easier to make 10,000 speeches about bringing a sacrifice than it is to bring the sacrifice. In the same way, it is easier to send 10,000 sighs up to God for grace and help to do it than actually doing it. You can make a decision 10,000 times, and also mean it, without doing it. This is the extent of the staggering weakness (or strength!) of the flesh—even if the spirit is willing.
The very best way of acquiring a reliable understanding of this matter is by considering and remembering that Christ Himself, manifested in flesh, needed to watch and pray to the extent that He did, that He prayed both night and day. This is precisely why Jesus does not say in the above-mentioned verse: “For your flesh is weak, but My flesh is totally different so that I do not need to watch and pray and can take a nap in the meantime.”
First by what He said, but mostly by what He did proves perfectly what He thought about the flesh He had voluntarily taken upon Himself for our sake—the flesh in which sin was condemned.
Seeing that Christ watched, fought, and prayed continually in order to accomplish His Father’s will perfectly, how successful will we be if we take it lackadaisically? The answer is that then we will not get our body to do God’s will because of this pitifully weak flesh! It is so helpless that it is absolutely incapable of doing anything. In other words, it is so royally strong in resisting that it is utterly impossible to move it with human effort!
See to it, dear brother! Make sure that you offer yourself and your possessions to the very last, and do it quickly! Make sure you get your body to jump with joy, accomplishing all God’s will, often and by making a great effort.
Most of each person’s life consists exclusively of habits—good habits and bad habits. Praying little is a bad habit, just as reading little in God’s Word and giving away little and being quiet or almost quiet at the meetings, but then chatting away with those you meet in the street or in the homes, etc.
Coming out of these nasty bad habits is like getting a wagon out of a rut that is half a meter deep. Make sure that you encourage the horse powerfully so that the wheels get out of these deep ruts!!! However, it will not succeed either with the strength of the horse or with the strength and energy of man, but by the Spirit of the Lord it will succeed.
Therefore it is vital to watch and pray sufficiently so that it can succeed.