{"id":5918,"date":"2020-09-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/?p=5918"},"modified":"2024-12-23T11:42:31","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T11:42:31","slug":"chapter-14-the-secret-of-watching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/2020\/09\/06\/chapter-14-the-secret-of-watching\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 14: The Secret Of Watching"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>\u201c<\/em><strong>Behold,<\/strong><em> <\/em><strong>I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2014Revelation 16:15<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cJesus connected prayerfulness with vigilant watching. Twice He told His disciples, \u2018Watch and pray\u2019 (Mark 13:33; 14:38). So there\u2019s something about prayer that is wide-eyed, attentive, and on full mental alert. In the secret place, we do not hide from current events\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThe Lord never placed on us the burden of seeing into the future. He does call us, though, to be alert to the hour in which we live and to discern the signs of our times. He expects us to have understanding and awareness concerning today.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cOne of the important words of this hour is the word \u201cdiscernment.\u201d Jesus wants us to be alert and able to discern the signs of the times\u2026Those who stand at attention in the secret place will carry the wisdom to discern the mystery of iniquity and the mystery of godliness in the earth today.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cWhen a thief visits, he will often give off small signals of his presence\u2026In a similar way, there well may be subtle signs to Christ\u2019s coming which only the alert will notice. Those who watch, if they are attentive, may actually discern the sounds of Christ\u2019s coming. What a blessing it would be to be found on active duty and alert at His coming!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cIt\u2019s in the garden with your Lord that you gird your waist for immediate action, and that you trim your lamps until they burn with flaming passion. Do not sleep, but watch and pray. It\u2019s the great secret to being ready for the imminent return of the Lover of your soul.\u201d<\/em>\u2014<strong>Bob Sorge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cKeep me alert, Lord. Keep me awake. Sharpen my spiritual sensitivities. May I never get drunk with the intoxication of this world. May my spirit never become dulled by the busyness of my day. I am not concerned about the events of the distant future. Make me alert and involved in the events of today. You will not hold me accountable for the future\u2014but You will hold me accountable to how I acted today. Come Lord Jesus; come! Prepare me for Your coming. Prepare Your Church for Your coming. Unlike those virgins who slept off, keep my spiritual discernment sharp and keep me awake and attentive. Please Lord. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Challenge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reject intoxicants. Reject anything that dulls your spiritual alertness. By grace, commit to stay awake. May the Lord sharpen our spiritual discernment of the times we live in. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cBehold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches\u201d \u2014Revelation 16:15 \u201cJesus connected prayerfulness with vigilant watching. Twice He told His disciples, \u2018Watch and pray\u2019 (Mark 13:33; 14:38). So there\u2019s something about prayer that is wide-eyed, attentive, and on full mental alert. In the secret place, we do not hide from current [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-50-days-pilgrim-challenge","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/50-days-pilgrim-challenge.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5918"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7377,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918\/revisions\/7377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}