WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO WATCH AND PRAY?
“Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21:36

Jesus told His disciples to watch and pray always as the secret of a successful Christian journey to heaven. The warning and command to watch and pray is not meant for everybody, it is not for those who have not experienced genuine salvation, but it is for disciples of Jesus, those who have been saved through Jesus Christ. You need to be washed by the Blood of the Lamb before you can start to watch and pray.

After our salvation in Jesus Christ, after we start a new life in Jesus Christ, what we need to make it to heaven, to overcome sin, satan and self, to overcome every temptation on our ways is to watch and pray. To be counted worthy for heaven after salvation, to escape every temptation and trial, the secret is by watching and praying. Sometimes, we wonder how are we going to escape all the temptations and trials in this life and to make it to heaven on this difficult narrow road, but Jesus has told us the secret, the simple means and method. In Luke 21:36, Jesus said, “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

So we can see here that Christian life becomes so, so simple, and making heaven becomes so, so certain and Christian journey comes so easy when we watch and pray.

So what does it mean to watch and pray? It means to keep checking our own life against any sinful nature that we discover in our life through the word of God, and we don’t need to struggle with it, but we take it to God in prayer to destroy them in our life and give us grace and inner strength to overcome it. Simple.

Sometimes, along our Christian journey, we will discover some strange ungodly and sinful nature coming up again, sinful feeling, lustful notion or desire, cares of this world. To watch means to be at alert against imminent danger. It could be anger building up, bitterness, lust, desire for things of this world, pride of life. All these are not ordinary, they are satanic arrows being shot into the life of a Christian, that is the reason Jesus said we must be watchful. We must watch to check our lives against any sudden, strange nature, feeling, passion, desires or lust.

And what do we do when we discover such sinful longing, feeling or desire or nature? We must not struggle with them, we must not see them as normal, we must not overlook them, we must not blame ourselves or question our Christian life. Satan will whisper to you, “Can you see that you are not really born again, or how do you explain this feeling or notion in the life of a child of God? Just take a look at yourself, see the terrible anger, lust, pride or desire? Go for it. You don’t need to deceive yourself, you are not saved, you are not a child of God. You need to quit and face reality”

In such a situation, Jesus direct us to pray about them. That is what it means to watch and pray.

Let me give you an example here. As a child of God, you recently discover that you easily get angry and speak with anger, or you begin to lust after sinful things, or desire for money and cares of life just begin to grow up in you, or the love of old sinful lifestyle and habits begin to stream back into your mind. In such case, you don’t begin to doubt your salvation, you don’t hide it and struggle with it. What you need to do is to take it to God in pray, you will pray, “Lord Jesus, I see that I recently get angry and upset easily, this strong anger in me coming up again, I need your help, Lord, please destroy this sinful nature in me, sanctify me, renew my mind. Give me the grace to overcome this ungodly nature. Feel me with Your Spirit Lord.” Amen

As you pray this prayer, you will feel relieved, refreshed and gain inner strength to calm the storms. That is the reason He said, “pray always” There is always something to settle in prayer as we watch our Christian life. Time of prayer is to settle matter with our God, either spiritual or physical matters, we take them to God in prayer to settle and get strength. Then you keep praying it daily and watch against the sinful nature, habit or feeling. It will die away. And that means you have overcome Satan on that matter.

Then we keep watching, being at alert, because our adversary Satan will still come with another sinful arrows and passion. Then we do the same thing over and over. Watch to discover any satanic work against your life and take it to God in prayer.

Why many Christians backslide and fall into such satanic arrows is either they don’t watch or they don’t pray. We must be watchful over our own life to discover when sinful habit or desire or feeling begin to form in our lives so we can pray against them before they come to reality.

TAKE IT TO THE LORD IN PRAYER
Do not struggle with sinful habit of feeling, take it straight to the Lord in prayer. Don’t manage sinful notion or desire, take it to the Lord in prayer. Take your weakness to the Lord in prayer, take even your prayerlessness to the Lord in prayer. God is always there for us to help us and give us strength and grace. When you are battling with lust, with anger, bitterness, God knows and understand our situation, He is waiting for us to help as we take everything to Him in prayer.

Watch and pray!

Amen

Message from Boundless Whatsapp Online Fellowship
By Gideon Akande

Do you want to grow and go better in your Christian life and ministry? Join Boundless Online Fellowship, a Whatsapp fellowship where we share God's Word togetehr and pray for one another. We meet online on Sunday evening and Wednesday for Prayer and Testimonies. To join this fellowship, send your full name, gender, location as Whatsapp message to +2348167093467