“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (Col 4:2; NIV). The Greek word for “watch” is gregoreo, it literally means to stay awake; other Bible translations of this verse use the words, “keeping alert.” In Matthew 26:41, when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, He told His disciples to “watch and pray” because they were getting drowsy when He was going through His time of greatest need. The word “watch” is also used in the New Testament in the sense of being prepared and ready for the second coming of Jesus. In Matthew chapter 24. Jesus was telling His disciples that no one knows when He will return so he said, “watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.” (Matt 24:42; NKJV). In verse 44, He told them, to “be ready” because His return would be unexpected. We see another reminder to be ready in the book of Revelation, “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame” (Rev 16:15; NKJV). Paul also uses the word “watch” when he exhorts the Corinthians to “Watch, stand fast in the faith” (1 Cor 16:13; NKJV). Other translations say, “be on guard”, “be on the alert”, instead of watch. Finally, lets note the words of Peter, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8; NLT).

In Proverbs 3:7b (NKJV) we are exhorted to, “Fear the Lord” and Luke in his gospel, reiterates this fact (Luke 12:5). In his account of the early church Luke wrote that the early Christians were, “walking in the fear of the Lord” (Acts 9:31; NKJV). These Christians were not in terror of God but they had a genuine, deep-rooted, reverential fear for Him. We, as Christians, are to fear God in the same way. God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son on Mount Moriah but as he took a knife to kill Isaac the Angel of the Lord stopped him saying, “now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son from Me” (Gen 22:12b; NKJV). What obedient fear of God! Years later, Jesus was sacrificed outside of Jerusalem on the same Mount Moriah! The author of Ecclesiastes wrote that, “it will be well with those who fear God” (Eccl 8:12b; NKJV). We are blessed if we fear God (Ps 112:1) and have His mercy (Luke 1:50). The book of Proverbs is replete with the promises of God for those who fear Him. The fear of the Lord opens the door to and prolongs life (Prov 19:23, 10:27), brings great confidence (Prov 14:26) and riches and honour (Prov 22:4). In addition, the fear of the Lord opens the way to great wisdom and knowledge (Prov 9:10, 1:7). Let’s humble ourselves and pray that God will develop that awesome reverential fear and respect for Him in us.

Hardness of heart in the Bible can be caused by sin, rejecting God, disappointment and unforgiveness to name a few. Proverbs 28:14 warns that, “He who hardens his heart will fall into calamity” (NKJV). This was certainly the case for the children of Israel who hardened their hearts against God many times throughout the whole of the Old Testament. The writer of Hebrews refers to this in Heb 3:15 when he quotes Psalm 95:8, “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion” (NKJV). We are told that the disciples suffered from “hardness of heart” (Mark 6:52). The Amplified Bible explains that term saying that “their hearts had grown calloused (had become dull and had lost the power of understanding)”. Jesus rebuked His disciples at least twice for hardness of heart. Once when they couldn’t seem to understand that He could provide for their needs (Mark 8:17-21) and another time because they did not believe those who told them that Jesus had risen from the dead (Mark 16:14). In Matthew 19:8 Jesus was talking to His disciples about marriage and divorce and He said the reason Moses allowed divorce was because of, “hardness of hearts”. If you want your marriage to survive, we learn here that we need to have “tender hearts” towards our spouse. Let’s keep our hearts soft (humble, teachable, compassionate) today, not only towards God but towards our spouses, family members and everyone we come into contact with.

The apostle Paul said that: “The just shall live by faith” (Gal 3:11b; NKJV) and that he lived his life by faith in Jesus (Gal 2:20b). The writer of Hebrews made our need of faith quite clear when he said, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6; NKJV). Faith is having absolute trust and confidence in God (2 Tim 3:15; AMP). In Hebrews we read that, Faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:2; ESV). Jesus taught us that when we pray, when we speak our requests, we must believe that we receive what we ask for, even though we may not see the tangible manifestation immediately (Mark 11:22-24). This manifestation may take time to occur and we will need to mix patience with our faith (Heb 6:12). I like to think of faith as knowing that we know, that we know that God’s promises to us are always yes and amen (2 Cor 1:20) and will come to pass. In the epistle of James, we are told that there is no room for doubting, we must be consistent in faith, the “double minded man” will not “receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6-8; NKJV). God has given us all a “measure of faith” (Rom 12:3b; NKJV). We can grow and develop that faith by studying God’s word in our Bibles (Rom 10:17) and “praying in the Holy Spirit” (Jude 1:20; NKJV); that is praying as directed by the Holy Spirit and in tongues. Let’s all strive to be powerful faith-filled Christians.

“So encourage each other and build each other up just as you are already doing” (1 Thess 5:11; NLT). We also see the words, “encourage one another” in Heb 10:25. Our speech should also encourage others (Eph 4:29) In that verse the words build up and edify are used instead of encourage in some translations. 1 Thess 5:14 tells us to encourage the disheartened and Gal 6:2 tells us to carry each other’s burdens. Jesus was an encourager as we see in the gospels, He frequently told the people He was relating to not to fear but to, “cheer up.” For example, when the disciples were caught in a storm Jesus told them to, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid” (Matt 14:27; NKJV). Then in John 16:33 He says, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (NKJV). It doesn’t get more encouraging than that! The early church also made encouragement a part of their ministry. We read in Acts 13:15 that Paul and Barnabas were asked if they had any word of encouragement for the church in Antioch and they did! (Acts 16:40; See also Acts 18:27, 20:1-2, 27:36). So, I encourage you today to look for ways you can encourage someone, whether it be a note, a phone call, text or kind word; that way you will be a doer of the word and pleasing to God.