Watch and Pray

 To watch someone or something means to keep a close eye and observe something carefully. It also means to stay awake on purpose and stay informed about something. To pray means to talk to God. Both words are action words and require us to do something on our part. Both require us to be intentional about looking to someone or something. When these words go hand in hand, they're a powerful team 👏!! In the Bible in Matthew 26:41, we see Jesus using both of these words in the same sentence. In a previous verse, Jesus was talking to 3 of his followers: Peter, James and John and had given them specific instructions (v.36-38). Jesus is about to go pray because he is sorrowful and has a heaviness of heart about events that are about to take place. He tells Peter, James and John to stay where there are and stay awake (v.38). In other words, they were to be observant and watchful. So Jesus leaves them to go pray. When he comes back, he finds that they all have fell asleep (v.40)! Then, Jesus asked the question to Peter: Couldn't you stay up for one hour?  Verse 41 is where I want to put my focus at for today. The verse says, "Stay awake and pray, so that you won't enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Jesus wanted the 3 men with him to stay awake, but they were struggling! Now here, we see the men physically not being watchful, but I want to take it a step further. Let's talk about staying awake to life in general. What about staying awake to what's going on in the world around us? What about staying awake to what's going on around us in our personal lives, jobs, communities, relationships? How observant are we? Notice Jesus didn't just tell his followers they need to watch, but he also said they needed to pray. As I mentioned earlier, the two have to go hand in hand! The reason for this is temptation. Temptation is real. It was real back when Jesus walked the Earth with his disciples and it's real now. Temptation involves trying to get someone to do something wrong (say something, do something, go somewhere, wrong attitude, etc.) We will all be tempted as Jesus himself was tempted (Matthew 4:1-11). However, it's our response to the temptation that makes a difference. We don't know when it will come, so we have to be ready and guarded against it by being watchful and prayerful at all times. When there is even a hint or an appearance of something not looking right, we can shut it down and stop it in its track. I Thessalonians 5:22 in the Bible tells us to stay away from every kind of evil. I will admit I haven't always been as watchful and prayerful as I should in all situations. Like the disciples struggled to stay awake in their situation, I have too! If we would all be honest, we all have struggled with that at some point. Today, I want to urge you to watch and pray at all times. All throughout our day, we can talk to God. I'm so glad 😀!! We can't always say our prayers aloud verbally at every minute, but we sure can say it silently to ourselves. First, we must know what God's Word says and take time to study it. When we do that, we can recognize right from wrong. Once we know it, we can practice speaking it aloud and memorizing it. We can think about it and speak it aloud throughout our day and in our prayers. In doing these things, we can watch and pray. Watch and pray against complaining. Watch and pray against comparing ourselves. Watch and pray against backbiting and gossiping. Watch and pray against false lies and teaching. Watch and pray against unhealthy love and one-sided relationships. Watch and pray against overextending yourself and overthinking in your mind. Watch and pray against unforgiveness and holding grudges. Watch and pray against pride and knowing it all because we all have something we can learn. Watch and pray against being someone you're not to impress others and settle for less than the best. Watch and pray so that you can be on the right path surrounded by the right people doing the right thing 💖. Remember to make the choice every day to watch and pray! God bless💛!