Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. – Matthew 26:41, King James Version (KJV)

A young boy was playing in the sandbox in his back yard when he stumbled upon a very large rock. Not wanting the rock in his sandbox, he decided to remove it from his domain. At first he tried lifting it, but the rock proved too heavy for him. Next he tried rolling it to the edge of the sandbox, and with quite a bit of effort, he was able to do that. But when it came to lifting the rock over the edge of the sandbox, he just couldn’t do it, no matter how hard he tried. Eventually, he gave up, and he began to cry as he came to grips with his inability to accomplish his goal.

Throughout his son’s ordeal, the boy’s father watched from the kitchen window. After his son started crying, the father stepped outside, approached his son, and asked him this question:

“Son, why didn’t you use all of your strength to get the rock out of the sandbox?”

Between whimpers, the boy answered, “I did, Dad! I did! I just couldn’t do it!”

With a grin on his face, the father said softly, “No you didn’t, son, because you didn’t ask me for help.” After looking into his son’s eyes for a moment, the father bent over, picked up the rock, and tossed it out of the sandbox.

In Matthew 26:41, Christ made it plainly clear that our flesh is weak. With our human effort we can move the stones of trial, temptation, and trouble a little bit, but we can’t move them enough to have true victory. In order to have complete victory, we have to access all of our power, and accessing all of our power requires calling on God, through prayer, to help us.

Do you want to have victory over that stone of trouble? Then ask your Father for help now rather than when you are at your wit’s – and your strength’s – end.