Watchman

Watchman…

You know those verses in the Bible that after you finish reading you think, “That was weird, why did he say that?” Well, I ran across one of those the other night while I was reading… And usually, I just let those verses disappear in the back of my mind, but for some reason I couldn’t bury this one.

In the last chapter of Colossians, Paul is giving his final instructions to the church, and he writes, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being WATCHFUL and thankful.”

WATCHFUL…? That seems obscure…especially in connection with prayer... And even more obscure in light of the way we are taught to pray in our culture…Heads bowed and eyes closed.

How can I WATCH with my head down and my eyes closed? And better yet, why be WATCHFUL, and what am I WATCHING for?

The answer to the first question is pretty obvious…You cant… Well , not unless you are a mom…all moms have eyes in the back of their heads…thats obviously why I always got caught sneaking out of the house…but that’s a different topic for a different day.

Why WHATCHFUL? And what should I be WATCHING for?

I took the liberty (I was bored at work) to look up the Greek word Paul uses for WATCH… and what I found was that at its root the word means…to be aroused from sleep…to open your eyes…to be alert.

So in other words Paul is telling us to devote ourselves to prayer…with our eyes open and our radars on…And I don’t think he is just talking about the posture in which we pray….heads bowed, eyes closed vs. heads up, eyes open…it goes much deeper than that.

You see Paul realized something that most of us have never realized or often forget. He understood that EVERYTHING is spiritual.

Not just going to church, listening to Christian music, reading the Bible, and praying….but EVERYTHING

“Unfortunately for most of us its far too normal to separate our spiritual life from our real life…but in reality there is no distinction….everything we do is Spiritual” The truth is whether we are playing golf, eating lunch with friends, sitting at our desk, or studying for a test…we need God in all those moments and places. And He is moving in all those moments and places.

Its this separation of my world into different compartments that I fear causes me to miss out on moments where God’s Spirit is moving in my life and in others all around me.

You see its not just about remembering to pray over our meals or before we hit the sack…But its about living AWARE of God moment by moment.

That’s what I believe Paul is calling us to…To devote ourselves to prayer as we watch where He is moving in every moment…this is a DISCIPLINE that will take a lifetime to learn, but one we must start practicing…

Because God is not just part of our life; He is our life…

And if we want to join Him in His work of redeeming the world, we must begin to PRAY…

with our EYES OPEN

and our RADARS ON

Let me and you make this our practice…