prayer meeting dec 23

We came across this passage when we looked at Gen 7 and Noah - and it got me thinking:

Matthew 24:36–51 (NIV 2011)

‘But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. ‘Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. ‘Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, “My master is staying away a long time,” and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The instruction we are given by Jesus through these verses are, I think, dangerously overlooked in our time and faith.

Matthew 24:42 NIV 2011

‘Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

Matthew 24:44 NIV 2011

So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

In fact almost every time Jesus speaks of his return he attaches this same warning.

SO I presume we’re not the first generation to be at risk of ‘not watching’, of not ‘being ready’.

Jesus knows we are naturally slow in faith, and naturally quick to forget the most important aspects of His commands and promises.

Satan loves us to forget that Jesus will return in triumph and to judge.

The more we forget, the more he wins - for now.

Jesus is coming - therefore keep watch.

Like a thief in the night, he will return, and we are not to be sleeping - spiritually that is.

JC Ryle says - We should behave like the guard of an army in an enemy land.

The apostle Pual says,

1 Thessalonians 5:6 NIV 2011

So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.

And so

Matthew 24:46 NIV 2011

It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.

What does keeping watch look like in practice?

Of course it is faith and obedience,

But in thinking about this I was taken back to a command in Isaiah that I found an important call into my own ministry - it’s a call of watching and warning:

Isaiah 62:6–7 NIV 2011

I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.

I take it to mean that if ‘we are not to rest’ and we are ‘not to give God any rest’ until he returns - that means we are people of constant prayer.

Calling on God to retrun and save.

We watch and pray for the Lord to return, all the while warning others that he’s coming.

When we lie awake at night, literally not sleeping - do we see that as God’s call to us to pray!

When we face each trial each day, do we see it as a call to lift our eyes to the horizon and pray!

We are not doomed, we are not left doubting if Jesus is returning,

we do not go about our lives in shame.

No - We watch and pray.

with eyes lifted up to Jesus - we see him on the horizon - and we are ready.