Nuggets
Watching alone doesn’t cut it, and neither does praying alone — we have to watch and pray.
We think we are fighting Satan, but we aren’t.
In order to chose right from wrong, we need to watch in and pray for discernment.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
Devotions in the How Do We Live Godly Lives? series
Watchfulness is a continual conscious examination of ourselves and all events so that we may follow God in all things. Prayer is a two-way communication with God in which we pour out our soul to Him.
Some might feel that the two are not connected, but they are. Let’s take a look.
“The third sort of directions are for the ordering of evil thoughts, when they do intrude; and” (Charnock, The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts)
Let's Put It into Context #1
We’ve been looking at Charnock’s sermon entitled The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts to show us how to cleanse, a.k.a. sanctify, our thought processes. Charnock has taught us
- that we cleanse our thoughts when we return to having a strong relationship with God. We can do that by studying the Scriptures, meditating on God, contemplating on His creation, and praising Him.
- that we focus our thoughts by being humble instead of prideful, following God instead of the worldview, working instead of being idle, and laboring for Him.
- that we overcome our evil thoughts by burying ourselves in Scripture, relying on His omniscience and judgment, guarding our hearts and lips, evaluating ourselves, and recognizing evil thoughts, especially hating sin and resisting Satan. We do this by watching and praying.
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Glossary
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
How Are Watching and Praying Connected?
“Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Mt. 26: 41 NLT)
Watching alone doesn’t cut it, and neither does praying alone — we have to watch and pray.
“Join supplication with your opposition. "Watch and pray" are sometimes linked together (Matthew 26:41). The diligence and multitude of our enemies should urge us to watch, that we be not surprised; and our own weakness and proneness to presumption should make us pray that we may be powerfully assisted” (Charnock, The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts)
South was right when he identified the connection between the two. He wrote, “For watchfulness without prayer is presumption, and prayer without watchfulness is a mockery.”
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If we aren’t watching for God to answer our prayers or impact the situations, we are just praying in entitlement.
How Watching and Praying Fights Our Battles
We think we are fighting Satan, but we aren’t.
God fights Satan for us. There is no way we are going to defeat Satan on our own.
We need God to defeat him for us. Besides, we can’t see Satan as this is spiritual warfare.
Spiritual warfare is the fight between the spiritual forces of good and evil. We just had a devotion where we talked about how formidable a foe Satan is. God doesn’t deny that.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Our responsibility is to pray to call on God to fight the battle. We have to choose to stand with Him and for Him.
We have to use our minds to pay attention to what is happening to us. When Satan tries something, we need to call on God to protect us.
The need to keep watching arises from the constant threat of sin. Even little sins are threats, as they can lead to bigger sins.
Pilkington said that our free will resides in our spirit. He wrote, “The text suggests to us that though the spirit of man be illumined by the Spirit of God, the weakness of the flesh may bear him down.”
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Elaine-speak. Yes, we are now children of God. However, we are still in these physical bodies. As we are still citizens of this world, we will have to hold strong against its lure. The flesh is still weak and is going to have to battle to withstand Satan’s onslaught.
Glossary
But did you see that? “… For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Mt. 26: 41 NLT).
Jesus didn’t say the spirit was weak. I think Satan attacks us by trying to convince us that our faith is suspect. It may not be.
Doesn’t Jesus say “‘If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,’ the Lord said, ‘you can say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it will obey you’” (Lk. 17: 6 CSB).
To me, that means faith is faith whether it be mustard-seed size or palm-tree size. What is important is that the faith is rooted in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
How many times do we kick ourselves for not praying or reading our Bible? The most important thing is we have faith.
But don’t get me wrong. The second most important thing is that we are navigating the Sanctification Road to fix that.
God is interested in the motivation. Are we trying to gain His character? Or are we doing the doggie paddle?
No, we don’t need to be in a speed boat on the Road. That would be an extreme.
I think God is fine with us being in the row boat. We have to be sober-minded and even-keeled. Plus, we have to work for it.
(No, I didn’t switch metaphors there. Doing the doggie paddle means we are out of the boat entirely. God surely doesn’t want that.)
Watching in and Praying for Discernment
In order to chose right from wrong, we need to watch in and pray for discernment.
Jackson said that we can discriminate because we are watchful. If we keep that in our terminology, we would say we can discern God’s Will. Discernment means we can evaluate the situation and recognize right from wrong.
Even though we have the sentry guarding, the sentry has to make decisions. Is it a sin or not? Do we want to do this or not?
Jackson wrote, “A sentinel will scrutinize and test the character.” That is what God wants it to be all about — our thoughts, feelings, and actions.
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Our guard will evaluate the terror threat and determine if an alarm needs to be triggered. A sentry is no good if the terror threat is identified but no alarm is given.
But just sounding the alarm isn’t enough. There has to be troops to defend the camp. If it is just us, we are sure to feel defeat.
Yes, we have to have the armor of God on. But with the armor comes God.
To read devotions in the Armor of God series, click the appropriate button below.
That means God and His troop of angels have to be in the camp. That means we have to be watching and praying.
What all of this tells me is we have our part. We can’t do it all on our own, but our part is to watch and pray. That allows Hod to do His part.
Beecher talked about something that really hit me. He wrote about “… the need which our God has of our affection, and our sympathy, and our presence with Him.”
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Think about it. We are always talking about how much we miss God’s mark. Low faith, low ability to withstand temptation, low ability to give up a sin usually heads the list of our character defaults.
We don’t fathom the need God has to be in a relationship with us. He needs our love, our shared opinions, and our companionship.
Sovereign God needs us that much.
No, that doesn’t mean He is going to give us a pass on unforgiven sin. He isn’t like us.
We all probably know someone — or have been that someone — who has stayed in a relationship way longer than we should have. The person really didn’t love us, abused the concept of a relationship, or was downright abusive in many ways.
But we stayed in it. We gave excuses. We tried to honor our commitment — even if they didn’t.
God cannot allow us to continue sinning. He has attributes of purity and perfection. He can’t tolerate our sin. “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? …” (Hab. 1: 13 NIV).
All this tells me is to keep trying to imitate God. Don’t give up. Don’t expect Him to accept us without our trying.
Navigate the Sanctification Road His way.
We have to be diligent in our watching and praying. South said that we have to evaluate our strengths and weaknesses and compare those to Satan’s.
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I know. That isn’t an easy task. Satan can come at us a variety of ways just on one issue alone. South suggests that we evaluate past sins to determine how he did so we can prepare for future temptations.
Well, that is the purpose of evaluating ourselves. We have to know ourselves — both our strengths and weaknesses.
- What are our strengths in defeating sin?
- What are our weaknesses in giving into sin?
- Where did we go wrong when we fell into sin?
- How was the sin accomplished?
- What was the outcome of the sin?
- What can we do to ensure that we don’t fall into that sin again?
I have developed a worksheet based on the questions.
Related Links
I have created a worksheet of the questions above. Click on the button below to access it.
Stillingfleet gave us a good visual of temptation. Picture it as a trial.
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Temptation is in the testimony stage. God has long ago given His argument for the defense. Satan is giving his all to prosecute us.
So where to prayers come into play?
- Pray to keep us out of the court system.
- Pray for a not-guilty verdict when we do get in the system.
How does prayer keep us out of the court system? Stillingfleet said it not only keeps us safe when our Sanctification Road has cliffs on both sides, but it also keeps our supply chain intact for divine support.
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We think the temptations are going to hit us when we are weak. I don’t know if I totally agree with that.
Oh, yes. Satan is going to grab the low-hanging fruit. He is g to make sure we disobey God.
But I think Satan is going to double down when we think we are strong. What better coup than showing God — and us — that these mere humans are not as strong and obedient as we think.
That just reinforces that we must be consistent in our watchfulness and prayers. Satan will strike at any time.
Making the Connections
Christ’s response to the disciples in the Gethsemane is interesting. He didn’t scream and shout at them. He didn’t lower the boom.
Instead, Jesus looked at their hearts. He saw that they were willing.
Maybe their bodies just couldn’t stay up any longer. Maybe they ate too much and needed a nap.
That didn’t matter as much as their hearts were willing.
Oh, yes. They still had to confess their sin. They still needed to ABCD in the first place.
But Herron gave us that for which Jesus was looking. He wrote “Are we willing, in the sense of being resolved, and bent upon doing God’s will, following after holiness, and showing sympathy with Christ by bearing the cross for His sake?”
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To me, that just showcases the power of God’s love and forgiveness. He takes into consideration that we have a sinful nature.
But God doesn’t let us use that as an excuse. We still have to watch and pray for forgiveness and provision.
How Do We Apply This?
- Learn from the sin of others.
- Be sincere in our prayers.
- Keep our minds focused on God through prayers.
- Don’t put ourselves in tempting situations.
- Watch the cycle of sin — the beginning of temptation, the beginning of our considering it, our actual commission of the sin.
- Stay dependent on God.
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We need to focus on God, not circumstances. Focus means we watch and pray to the One Who controls all, even our thoughts.
Father God. We will remain dependent on You. Help us to stay focused on Your Word and Your Presence. Amen.
What do you think?
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