Do you ever make excuses for your bad behavior? Or worse yet, when someone asks you why you acted that way, do you answer, “I don’t know”? Sadly, I am guilty of both.

I pains me to think about how many times I say things like:

“Yeah, but…”

“They started it”

“They deserved it”

“Once I got started, I just couldn’t stop myself”

How does this behavior line up with my desire to ABIDE in Christ? ? In Matthew 26:41b NIV it says “…The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” But even this passage read like an excuse. As I read the rest of the story, I can hear Christ’s broken heartedness in his words.

³⁶ Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

³⁹ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

⁴⁰ Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. ⁴¹ “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

⁴² He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

⁴³ When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴ So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

⁴⁵ Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. – Matthew 35-45 NIV

Take heart, dear reader, if Christ willingly prepared to go to the cross, there is hope for us. His closest friends, betrayed Him, denied Him & ran away. Yet, He still went to the Cross to suffer & die, so that they and we might ABIDE in Him and live!

My friend, I know that I still have a long way to go, BUT as I spend time in prayer & reading God’s Word each day, the thrill of abiding in Christ increases.

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