Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.  For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak! Matthew 26:41

My friend Millie is 95 years young. Born to missionary parents in China before the Communist Revolution, she’s known Jesus for a long time. Millie is vibrantly beautiful, but it’s one of her prayers, that I’ll always remember.

You would think that your spiritual life would get easier the longer you’ve lived the disciplines of Bible reading, prayer and churchgoing.  Not necessarily, say Jesus followers who’ve walked a long road with Him.  After over eight decades with Jesus, my friend, Millie continues to pray, “God, make me willing to be made willing.”

Jesus knew that, in and of ourselves, we would always struggle with what we call our “flesh,” our drive to live for ourselves, not for others or for God.  “Keep watch and pray so that you will not give in to temptation,” Jesus told his followers.  “For the spirit is willing but the body is weak” (Matthew 26:41).

I read about another follower of Jesus who prayed this “God, make me willing to be made willing” prayer: a woman named Corrie Ten Boom. In her book, Tramp for the Lord, she recounted surviving the horrors of the Holocaust and of the many times she had to pray this prayer.  She told God that He’d simply have to make her willing to forgive the brutally cruel guards of the concentration camp she had been in. Unbelievably, she came face to face with one of the guards after the war. In answer to her prayer, God did make her willing, and gave her the strength to reach out a hand in forgiveness.

God, make me willing to be made willing.  God compassionately answers this beautiful prayer.

 

Resource reading: Psalms 51:7-12