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Showing posts with the label Watchfulness

Watch with me

So, my dear friends, listen carefully; those who embrace these my ways are most blessed. Mark a life of discipline and live wisely; don’t squander your precious life. Blessed the man, blessed the woman, who listens to me, awake and ready for me each morning, alert and responsive as I start my day’s work. When you find me, you find life, real life, to say nothing of God’s good pleasure. But if you wrong me, you damage your very soul; when you reject me, you’re flirting with death. (Proverbs 8:32-36) Having a "storehouse" gives us the ability to "save up" for the days of leanness that are sure to come. God's storehouse has resources always available for us: Direction; Strength; Success; and Insight. We can access his storehouse at any time - making the necessary withdrawals. It is also important to lay up for times of leanness in our own lives - things like Trust, Patience, Endurance, and even Faith. The blessings God distributes to his children are also thi...

Place that guard!

Guard: To keep safe from harm or danger; protect; watch over.  In most cases, when scripture refers to God placing a "guard" over our lives, he is saying he is giving us protection, keeping watch, over our lives.  When he asks us to "guard" something, he is asking us to keep a particular thing under close watch in order to prevent some kind of misconduct.  The protection over our lives comes from God - the prevention of things which might put us in harms way is partly our responsibility - for obedience is paramount to our safety.  GOD guards you from every evil, he guards your very life. He guards you when you leave and when you return, he guards you now, he guards you always. (Psalm 121:7-8 MSG) GOD - Jehovah - the unchangeable one - places a guard over your lives.  The one who is unchangeable in all his promises - incapable of misrepresenting the truth - watches over our every step.  The one who is capable of becoming all we need is there with a...

Standing Guard

To "keep watch" implies there will be continual action in observing - more or less as a sentinel or protector over someone or something.  If you have ever been told to "keep watch" you know just how difficult this is - for "continual" action of any sort on our part is pretty doggone difficult.  Why?  We are dis-tractable creatures.  We find more excuses for diverting our attention away from the task at hand.  In the sense we are thinking of in our illustration, the word implies this watchfulness which is without break in attentiveness.  In the way we think about "keeping watch", we think means a frequent "revisit" to the subject at hand, but not this brooding oversight which never, never takes an eye off the subject.  Both definitions of "continual" would be entirely accurate - one suggestive of human ability, the other of divine! Keep watch over me and keep me out of trouble; d on’t let me down when I run to you.   Use all ...

Watching FOR and AFTER

Yesterday we examined the importance of having a "storehouse" - the ability to "save up" for the days of leanness.  God's storehouse has some always available resources for us:  Good advice; Strength; Success; Direction; and Insight.  We can access his storehouse at any time - making the necessary withdrawals.  Yet, there is an importance of laying up for times of leanness in our own lives - things like Trust, Patience, Endurance, and even Faith.  The blessings God distributes to his children are also things we need to "tuck away" in our storehouses:  Unending Riches such as wealth, honor, justice, and emotional wholeness.  Sometimes we only think of wealth in the sense of what we have in our bank accounts and investments - God thinks of wealth as what we possess in the way of relationships!  Gaining the right perspective on what he prepares for us as "items" which "fill our storehouses" will help us to embrace them as they are prov...