WATCHING AND PRAYING 

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. [Matthew 26:41] 

Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. [Mark 13:33] 

Watching and praying has to do with keeping the power of God present. 

Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. [Mark 14:38]  

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. [Luke 21:36]  

To watch and pray is much like the same test or proofing set before Adam in the Garden. God tempts no man.There are two kinds of temptation. The devil, void of goodness, tempts the will by presenting something contrary to the will of God. He tempts with something that we should desire and obtain, that the sin may be committed. He does his best to quicken the desire for it, and to blind the understanding and conscience to a perception of the evil of it.   

God would not tempt in this sense.  He cannot influence us to evil in mind or heart. Nor in desire to sway the mind of any to choose the evil, and refuse the good. But He can and does tempt/prove, in the sense of putting both His people and the ungodly into circumstances of trial, in which the tendencies of each shall be seen. 

God is uncreated. He is eternal. God’s Nature is Goodness. To watch and pray is to recognize that our nature, is created. And albeit in the image of God, with our “will”, we are not uncreated like God, who is Good. And therefore if left alone, we will tend to miss the mark. When created man, although perfect in creation, is left alone without the active influence of God upon his soul, he tends to corruption, or want of beauty and fruitfulness. (Thus we discover the result of the curse in nature: thorns and thistles, which are but the abortion of creation, and as it relates to fallen spirits and man; spiritually deformed). Evil is not eternal, it has not been forever, nor will it be forever, it is the result of a created nature, limited or void of God’s active presence in it. 

God alone is good. “Good” may only evolve from His presence. Evil is the lack or neglect of God’s goodness/wholeness/presence. When God calls us to good, He calls us to value His presence as the only means by which we may have an abundantly good quality of life. That we may be (as far as the created can be) “good” by being eternally in His near Presence. This goodness/glory is the essence of the promise to the faithful of the PRIZE Paul ran so zealously for. The prize that far exceeds the gift of the merely justified eternal life quality. 

Motives determine the endeavor being either good or bad/evil. Works without the right motive is absent of God’s presence and is therefore determined evil. Good Works, formed by the influence of His presence tends to wholeness/holiness, fullness/fruitfulness. Works, like vain repetitions in prayer, without right motive are dead works, because they bring not the presence of God into the soul.   

Motive is the determiner of good and evil. So it is the target of the deceiver. To manipulate the motive of action by replacing the understanding with corrupting or evil ideas, results in the fruit of evil. Right understanding becomes essential for keeping the presence of God, the great power of God, the grace of God upon the soul. Right understanding of the Presence of God, and of the ever present tendency of the flesh to undermine the determined will is the essence of watching and praying. 

Effective Prayer is based upon the inclined ear to hear the Word of God, and in the fear of the Spirit/spirit diminishing in its influencing presence. This tends to humility and yielding the will to its action and draws upon the continuing presence of God. Pride and self–reliance is the product of a created being with a will lacking in the nature of goodness. Which can only come from the uncreated Being in Whom there is no changing, and therefore the only resource for it. There is none other than God who is Good. His Goodness is Eternal Wholeness/Holiness, into which He invites us. 

Father grant us the understanding of the necessity of your holiness, and the means by which we may acquire it. That is by our choosing your daily presence to nurture our soul.