"...with all perseverance.”

“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching there unto with all perseverance.”

(Ephesians 6:18)

Notice what Paul said: “watching thereunto with all perseverance.” Paul addresses us as soldiers, not spectators. We are not to watch as a spectator watches a sporting event. A soldier must be alert and watch with a pre-determined decision to respond to danger and any attack of the enemy. Watch! I Peter 5:7 says, “Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary the devil walks about seeking who he may devour”. Be sober... don’t allow yourself to be intoxicated on anything that interferes with your closeness to God. Being vigilant means keeping careful watch for danger. Paul urges us in Romans 13:11 to wake up! The times in which we live, demand that we live watchful and alert to what is happening around us. If you have observed all that has happened in our world in the last eighteen (18) months concerning the pandemic, the governmental over-reach, the cultural war, the events with China, Russia and Afghanistan and yet, nothing has changed in your walk with God or your witness to your family—you have been a spectator, not a watchful soldier.

The Word of God urges us to be watchful:

• Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 6:41)

• And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. (Mark 13:37)

• And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 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: 34-36)

• Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. (I Corinthians 16:13)

A good soldier not only watches for and is alert to dangers but, also watches for and is alert to opportunities for his army to advance against the enemy. And so, it is with God’s church. Today’s church must be alert to danger and alert to opportunities to advance God’s Kingdom-purpose on this earth… opportunities to reach the lost and disciple the saved. As long as there are people, there are opportunities to reach out in faith and be a voice and vessel of the anointing power of the Holy Spirit. This is not the time to shelter in place behind the walls and windows of our sanctuaries bemoaning the sad state of our world. This is God’s time for God’s Church to maximize the moment and seize the opportunities for loving and touching broken lives and families. May God help us to Watch, Worship, and Work until He comes in clouds of glory to get His Church!