Spirit is Willing but the Flesh is Weak

Given the last two posts, I begin to wonder if perhaps there isn't something to this dualistic business. You know the saying from Matthew 26:41... the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Perhaps my spirit really is willing and really wants to do all the good things, but it is my body, or the flesh, that keeps me from it?? Or as Paul would say (Rom 7), I want to do the good, but I do the exact opposite, so it must be sin that lives within me. Which leaves me wondering... can I blame it all on sin?? "Oh well, my spirit has the best of intentions, but you know, I'm a sinful being, so I just can't follow through on what my spirit desires". That begins to sound vaguely like an escape hatch or a cop-out to me!

Particularly if we hold that we are not dualistic begins, but rather a unified whole. The truth is, sometimes our best intentions are simply that... intentions, without anything really behind them. They are desires and wants and needs and "good ideas" but that's about it. I really don't put my "intention" behind things. I wiffle-waffle on giving up junk food and last for maybe a day or two. Or I exercise daily for a few weeks and then get out of the habit and it falls by the wayside. I really haven't committed to it! It's not that something called "sin" lives within me and stifles my best desires and intentions, it is me, pure and simple. I am the one who makes the choice, each and every day... a choice for the healthy or a choice for the unhealthy!

So, it is not so much that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, but rather that the spirit really hasn't committed itself wholly to what is called for! It takes a lot of will power, it takes a lot of self-control... it takes an attitude of "this is going to happen"!!! Whatever it might be: food, prayer time, exercise, family time... We are the ones who choose one way or the other. Even "not choosing" is a choice. Nobody else out there is going to kick start us... we are the only ones who can take ownership of our lives, take the tiller in our hand and steer a course for the direction we choose. So, go for it!!!