Monday 12 April 2010

Watch and pray

“Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night” (Ne 4:9).

Some Christians think that to properly trust in God we need to sit back and expect Him to do everything. But it is important to remember the words of our Lord to His disciples: “Watch and pray” (Mat 26:41). Not “pray and rest”, but “watch and pray”!

We should understand that God deals with us as He dealt with Israel in the case of Balaam; if we trust in Him, He will preserve us from those things that are beyond our power (as He did not allow Balaam to curse Israel, Deut 23:5), but He expects us to be on our guard against those things which are within our power (as He did allow Balaam to cause Israel to stumble through sensual immorality, Num 31:16).

May we follow the example of Nehemiah, praying to God to preserve and protect us, but also watching carefully, lest we fall prey to the enemy.

Pray always; never stop watching.

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