Sunday's church services in the Bro Teifi Ministry Area

St John, Betws Ifan 9.30am Holy Communion; 5.00pm Evening Prayer;

St Cynwyl, Aberporth 11.00am Holy Communion;

St Pedrog, Y Ferwig 9.30am Morning Prayer;

St Mary’s, Cardigan 11.00am Holy Communion;

St David, Carreg Wen 11.000am Morning Prayer;

St Mary’s, Llanfair Nantgwyn 9.30am Holy Communion;

St Llawddog, Cilgerran 11.00am Holy Communion;

St Llawddog, Cilgerran 4.00pm The Four o’clock service;

St Thomas, St Dogmaels 11.00am Morning Prayer;

St Brynach, Nevern 9.30am Morning Prayer;

Tuesday, 15 February: 10.30 yb Cymun Bendigaid yn Eglwys Sn Thomas, Llandudoch. Wednesday, 16 February: 10.00am Holy Communion, St Mary’s Cardigan.

Thought for the Week by Rev'd Christopher Frost, Vicar of Aberporth

What do we do when the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak?

This is a question that I have to ask myself on a daily basis, not least when I’m in a hurry and my new car has the potential to take me way over the local speed limits! How do we respond to the temptation to do things that God might want us to turn away from?

Christians are motivated in all things by joy and thankfulness. For anyone who has put their faith in Jesus, the good news that bursts through our very souls is that we are safe, we are loved, and we are forgiven, even the very worst of us – and so, we’re motivated to follow God simply out of joy, and thankfulness. Whenever we slip or stumble, God loves us, and he’s ready to pick us up, dust us off, and say: let’s try again.

But when we do experience temptation, as we all do, and even as Jesus did, we still very often find it a struggle. In our minds, we normally know what the right thing to do is to please God, and we may even want to do it: but it just seems like our bodies and our habits try to steer us another way so hard - like my foot just seems to push down harder on that accelerator.

Saint Paul, in the Book of Romans chapter 7, called this the law of the flesh. He says, “I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.” How many of us can empathise with that struggle! I know I can. It’s our natural predisposition. Ask the parents of toddlers whether they taught their children to fight each other, and lie, cheat, and steal. No - it just came naturally! It’s the reason we lock our doors at night, and the reason why the 20th century was the most violent in the whole of human history. We are all people trying to be good, but…we naturally very often tend to think, and act, with selfishness.

How can we overcome any law that pulls us down like that? With a something that can overpower it! For example, we can overcome the law of gravity in an aeroplane, using the more powerful law of aerodynamics. And the law of the flesh is no match for the power of God.

Paul went on to say, “Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” When someone becomes a Christian and has received the power of the Holy Spirit, then that’s a new power we receive to watch our thoughts for anything that shouldn’t be there, and to make the choice to nip that temptation in the bud. It’s that power that has changed, and continues to change, both my life, and the lives of anyone who stays close to God.