Thursday, August 20, 2009

Watchfulness

I need to be in a perpetual state of watchfulness over my heart. Do you ever feel like the minute you let your guard down...the enemy comes in and just takes over? I must stay watchful; always on guard! Sometimes it's very obvious and other times it is so subtle, I almost don't see it or I miss it completely until I am so far gone that my attitudes and actions do NOT glorify the Lord. How do I get to that point? It's by letting down my guard, not being watchful, putting down my Sword, becoming distracted by worldly, ungodly things. These things entice and draw....but, the Holy Spirit's draw should be stronger in a believer's life. Notice the words 'should be'. Paul even says in Romans 7:18-25:

18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Although my flesh continues to draw me to sin, the Holy Spirit maintains within me a desire for holiness. (1 John 3:9) What diligence and watchfulness is required of me when this enemy in my soul is ready to oppose every effort I make to do good! I must stay watchful; always on guard!

The Bible tells us that the heart is deceitful and unsearchable to any but God alone (Jeremiah 17:9-10). We do not know our own hearts. My heart is deceitful. My heart excuses, rationalizes, justifies my actions. It blinds me to the sin in my life. I must stay watchful; always on guard! I must ask God daily to search my heart and show me the sin that I cannot see. Psalm 139:23-24 says:
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

It is my own evil desires that tempt me to sin. (James 1:14) Oh, so true! I need to realize that the problem lies within me. I must stay watchful; always on guard!

The "accuser" uses discouragement as his chief weapon to keep me off guard. He wants to keep me discouraged so that the good I am doing does not seem to be working. He wants me to give up in my 'pursuit of holiness'. This deceit from my chief enemy draws me away from the Lord little by little and I become susceptible to listening to his lies and I am drawn away from watchfulness through discouragement. I say to myself, "what's the use...I'll never be good enough to be a vessel for the Lord. I just keep messing up." I must stay watchful; always on guard!

OR

Satan will use the fact that I am staying watchful and really keeping my guard up and he will lie to me and tell me that I am beyond temptation. What a lie! Do I fall for that? Do I look at someone else's sin and say, I'll never be tempted by that?" I must be careful in my watchfulness...that's why it's important to have brothers and sisters in Christ who will help to watch my back. Who will come to me and lovingly remind me that it is only the power of God in my life that will keep me from temptation and sin. I must not be drawn away from watchfulness by overconfidence.
I must stay watchful; always on guard!

I must remember that my fight against sin will never end. My heart will deceive me, my desires will lead me into temptation and my reason is constantly in danger of being deceived. I must stay watchful; always on guard!

"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Proverbs 4:23

My thoughts and notes from a Bible Study on the Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges

2 comments:

  1. Dawn, I love Proverbs 4:32. Our heart is the "wellspring" of life. How powerful it is to think about that. We often neglect our spiritual heart. No wonder we feel so "dead" and worn-out. We are cutting off our "wellspring of life". On the flip side of that, all we have to do to be constantly refreshed and feel alive in Him is keep a watch on our spiritual heart. Loretta

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, Proverbs 4:23 is what I meant to write!
    :-)

    ReplyDelete

Welcome to my blog!
Come on in and join me in sharing hope, love, and laughter each day! I hope to create (with the Lord's help) a peaceful refuge on the web for moms who need a moment to themselves to pray and ponder this blessed life we've been given and to re-focus on the important things that will lead us into eternity with Jesus Christ.

My heart's desires are:
  1. to be a godly helpmeet ("And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an helpmeet for him." Gen. 2:18)
  2. to be a mom who leads her children to Jesus ("Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Deut. 6:5-7) and
  3. to have a home that glorifies the Lord ("She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness" Proverbs 31:27).
We moms wear many hats in the home, and there are days that it's a struggle to juggle them all and fulfill our duties well. I hope to bring encouragement and share my experiences and the experiences of others in these areas. Not that I am full of wisdom (hardly) or am trying to reinvent the wheel.....oh no, Solomon made it clear that "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Ecclesiastes 1:9.

I just hope to be able to share with you some of the things I've learned on this journey called 'life' and the resources from people of wisdom that have helped me (and are helping me) along the way.

Please leave me a comment when you drop by, so that I'll know how I'm doing or the ways in which you've benefited from this blog. It will help encourage others (and me!)

I pray you'll be blessed by the time you spend here.
Dawn
With God, all things are possible!
wildwood2010@yahoo.com

Committed to Praise

"Lord, I worship You for all that You are. You are my Lord in the good times as well as the difficult. On the mountaintop as well as in the valley. You are the King of Kings on the throne of my life in the calm as well as in the storm. I praise you in times of great blessing as well as in times of great challenge. You are Almighty and all-powerful, and I find my strength in You. It is because of You that I can stand strong, even when I feel weak. For I know that when I am weakest, You show Yourself strong. I am grateful for Your salvation, deliverance, protection, goodness, and blessings in my life every day. I know that everything I have comes from You. Because of Your great strength I go from glory to glory and “strength to strength” no matter what is happening in my life (Psalm 84:7).

I want to show my love for You every day by embracing You with my worship and touching You with my praise. Teach me all I need to know about how to worship You in ways that are pleasing in Your sight. Fill my heart with such great knowledge of You that praising You becomes a way of life. Teach me to make it my first reaction to every situation, no matter what the situation is. All honor, glory, and majesty belong to You, Lord, for You are worthy to be praised.

You are holy and righteous, and I have no greater joy in life than entering into Your presence to exalt You with worship and praise every day. I know that in Your presence I will find everything I need forever."

From Stormie Omartian's book, The Prayer That Changes Everything

I've started praying this every day. Would you like to commit to pray this with me?

Committed to Pray for my Marriage:

“Lord, help me to be a good wife. I fully realize that I don't have what it takes to be one without Your help. Take my selfishness, impatience, and irritability and turn them into kindness, long-suffering, and the willingness to bear all things. Take my old emotional habits, mindsets, automatic reactions, rude assumptions, and self-protective stance, and make me patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. Take the hardness of my heart and break down the walls with Your battering ram of revelation. Give me a new heart and work in me Your love, peace, and joy (Galatians 5:22, 23). I am not able to rise above who I am at this moment. Only You can transform me.

Show me where there is sin in my heart, especially with regard to my husband. I confess the times I’ve been unloving, critical, angry, resentful, disrespectful, or unforgiving toward him. Help me to put aside any hurt, anger, or disappointment I feel and forgive him the way You do—totally and completely, no looking back. Make me a tool of reconciliation, peace, and healing in this marriage. Enable us to communicate well and rescue us from the threshold of separation where the realities of divorce begin.

Make me my husband’s helpmate, companion, champion, friend, and support. Help me to create a peaceful, restful, safe place for him to come home to. Teach me how to take care of myself and stay attractive to him. Grow me into a creative and confident woman who is rich in mind, soul, and spirit. Make me the kind of woman he can be proud to say is his wife.

I lay all my expectations at Your cross. I release my husband from the burden of fulfilling me in areas where I should be looking to You. Help me to accept him the way he is and not try to change him. I realize that in some ways he may never change, but at the same time, I release him to change in ways I never thought he could. I leave any changing that needs to be done in Your hands, fully accepting that neither of us is perfect and never will be. Only You, Lord, are perfect and I look to You to perfect us.

Teach me how to pray for my husband and make my prayers a true language of love. Where love has died, create new love between us. Show me what unconditional love really is and how to communicate it in a way he can clearly perceive. Bring unity between us so that we can be in agreement about everything (Amos 3:3). May the God of patience and comfort grant us to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus (Romans 15:5). Make us a team, not pursuing separate, competitive, or independent lives, but working together, overlooking each other’s faults and weaknesses for the greater good of the marriage. Help us to pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another (Romans 14:19). May we be “perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Cor. 1:10).

I pray that our commitment to You and to one another will grow stronger and more passionate every day. Enable him to be the head of the home as You made him to be, and show me how to support and respect him as he rises to that place of leadership. Help me to understand his dreams and see things from his perspective. Reveal to me what he wants and needs and show me potential problems before they arise. Breathe Your life into this marriage.

Make me a new person, Lord. Give me a fresh perspective, a positive outlook, and a renewed relationship with the man You’ve given me. Help me see him with new eyes, new appreciation, new love, new compassion, and new acceptance. Give my husband a new wife, and let it be me.”

From Stormie Omartian's book, The Power of a Praying Wife

I've started praying this every day. Would you like to commit to pray this with me?

Committed to Pray for my Children:

“Lord, I submit myself to you. I realize that parenting a child in the way You would have me to is beyond my human abilities. I know I need You to help me. I want to partner with You and partake of Your gifts of wisdom, discernment, revelation, and guidance. I also need your strength and patience, along with a generous portion of Your love flowing through me. Teach me how to love the way You love. Where I need to be healed, delivered, changed, matured, or made whole, I invite You to do that in me. Help me to walk in righteousness and integrity before You. Teach me Your ways, enable me to obey Your commandments and do only what is pleasing in Your sight. May the beauty of Your Spirit be so evident in me that I will be a godly role model. Give me the communication, teaching, and nurturing skills that I must have. Make me the parent You want me to be and teach me how to pray and truly intercede for the life of this child. Lord, You said in Your Word, “Whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” (Matthew 21:22). In Jesus’ name I ask that You will increase my faith to believe for all the things You’ve put on my heart to pray for concerning my children.”

From Stormie Omartian's book, The Power of a Praying Parent

I've started praying this every day. Would you like to commit to pray this with me?

Followers