Watch And Pray
Watch And Pray
“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation…” Matthew 26:41 NIV
A few weeks ago, God woke me up with this word – Watch And Pray. Although, I saw myself giving this express instruction to a friend, but I believe strongly that this word is not just for that friend of mine, but it is also for you and me and it is very relevant in the world we live in today. In this piece, I will attempt to share my thoughts on the subject matter and trust God to give life to these words in our hearts.
It was about the time Jesus was going to be taken away from the earth, and on this particular day, He withdrew from the multitude to go into solitude. While He further withdrew with three of His disciples, He charged them to stay and watch with Him. This was a time of great distress and sorrow for the human personality of Jesus; it was the time He was going to be betrayed, crucified and eventually fulfill the divine mandate of being the Savior of the world. This divine mandate although glorious, but was enwrapped in a process of Jesus’ journey to the cross. Hebrews 12:2.
Every divine mandate (dream, vision, word, goal etc.) must go through a process and the core of that process must hinge on the principle of “Watch And Pray.” It is not enough to claim you have a goal, a dream, a vision or a word from God without any effort on your part to drive it to reality. A man of God once said that it is an irresponsible faith that makes God responsible for everything. Have you ever wondered why Jesus did not tell His disciples to “Pray and Watch” rather he told them to "Watch and Pray"? God is a God of order! You know faith without works is dead, hence before you profess your minute or magnanimous faith, you must first profess your works (substance). Your prayers become a religious ritual and needless chant where there is no tangible substance to it. Before you profusely dissipate your energy on prayer, you must first ask yourself, “What is the substance of my prayer”?
Watch means to be on alert, to be cautious, to observe, to keep vigil; it means work, the opposite of idleness. None of these definitions connotes nothingness; rather they indicate that there is a substance to be watchful over. When Jesus told His disciples to Watch And Pray He further stated His main reason – “so you will not fall into temptation”. What does this mean? Temptation means you are not in charge, it means you have lost control, it means you have nothing; it means you stand for nothing and you fall for everything. Simply put, temptation means you have no substance and you are being swayed by circumstantial winds. Why should this be your testimony as a child of God?
Watch And Pray means do your part and seek God’s face for His part. When you choose to only pray and do nothing, you are seeking God’s face on nothingness. Anointing on nothing yields annoyance. Why must you continue to hit your head against the wall in frustration? What is the substance of your prayer? Are you overdue for marriage and you choose to just pray? Rebecca made the move to go to the well (Genesis 24:15-16), Ruth made the move to go to the threshing floor (Ruth 2:2-3) and Esther made the move to contest for the queen’s position (Esther 2:8, 16-17). Why then do you maintain status quo and simply expect to be found by your potential partner? Perhaps you think you deserve a promotion, but you have not done more than you are paid to do, neither have you improved on your competitive advantage for the next level, yet you cry to God for an increase.
Let us look at this mathematical equation: (see image above)
In this equation, God represents the power and you represent the factor. You noticed that factor zero to the power of ten yields zero and the more the factor increase, the more the result increases. If you raise the power of God upon nothingness, you get nothingness. This is not because God isn’t powerful, but this is because you refuse to enlarge your factor (or present your substance) to benefit from God’s powerfulness. Isaiah 54:2
We can go on and on with triggering questions and real-life examples to awaken your watch-ability, but the aim of this message is to serve as a template to shift your focus onto the command of Jesus that you must do your part before making the demand for God’s intervention. "Watching" tells God you are committed to doing your part to bringing your dreams and vision to fruition. It is an evidence of your substance, and your substance is your legitimate prayer tender in exchange for your desire. When you Watch before Praying, you are simply giving your prayers a framework and creating room for divine outpouring. This message challenges you to terminate your prayer on nothingness, halt your idleness, challenge God with your substance and then seek His face for a divine intervention.
You shall testify!
Oluranti Efunwoye
Wednesday, June 17, 2015.
@oludreambig