Good Intentions - November 9, 2010

Daily Reading

Matthew 26, Mark 14

Daily Verse

"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Mark 14:38

Daily Thought

"No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is."
~C.S. Lewis

Benjamin Franklin wanted to be good. Perfect, actually.

"It was about this time I conceiv'd the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection."

He made a list of 13 good things: Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity, and Humility.

His plan: attend to one virtue at a time; and, upon mastering the first, move to the second, and so on.

"But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my care was employ'd in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason."
~Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography

"We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means."
~C.S. Lewis

To God's Glory,
Dave Price

Daily Prayer

Father, thank you for reminding me that the temptations I will face today are nothing unusual. And thank you even more that Jesus has already faced all of these temptations and overcome them. Help me today, in Christ, to be an overcomer. By your Spirit may I put on the brakes, gently and quietly, while the danger is still a good way off. But if I do fall, help me to remember that in Christ there is forgiveness. And by your grace help me to get up once again and keep on keeping on in Jesus' name.

Amen