Eph. 6:18 By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints.
Watch and Pray
“By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints” (Eph. 6:18). The apostle said that it is not enough to pray at every time by means of all prayer and petition; we also must be watchful in the matter of prayer and petition. On the one hand we have to pray, and on the other hand, we have to be watchful. What does it mean to be watchful? Being watchful is to be awake and to survey and keep surveillance by keeping one’s eyes open. Being watchful is to be on the alert for any danger or emergency. Being watchful in prayer and petition is to have the spiritual insight to discern the stratagems of Satan and to expose his aim and the method of his work. We will mention specifically a few things that we should be watchful in with respect to prayer and petition.
Setting Aside a Time to Pray
After we understand the importance of prayer and have consecrated ourselves to serve and work in prayer, Satan’s attacks will come upon us, one after another. We must fight for the time to pray, and we must secure a time to pray. If we wait until we have time to pray, we will never have the opportunity to pray. We must set aside a time to pray. Andrew Murray said, “Those who do not have a set time to pray do not pray.” Hence, we must be watchful and secure the time to pray. We must also guard this time with prayer so that the devil will not usurp it by his deception.
Being Watchful While We Pray
Not only must we be watchful in guarding the time of prayer, but we also must be watchful while we pray, in order that we may pray and have things to pray about. While we pray, we have to ask God to keep us undistracted in prayer and deliver us from all the deception of the enemy that stops us from praying. We have to speak to all the distracting thoughts and voices as well as all the weakness and sickness and declare that all these inexplicable happenings are lies and deceptions of Satan and that we oppose them. We have to open our mouth and chase them away. We should not give them any ground; we should be watchful to withstand the wiles of Satan through prayer. Then not only will we be able to pray, we will be able to pray thoroughly. In order to pray thoroughly and powerfully, we must learn. We must be broken, and we must fight before we can secure this kind of prayer.
Guarding against the Prayers That Are Not Prayers
During our prayer, we must also guard against the prayers that are not prayers. Satan will not only take away our time of prayer, but also strip us of the strength to pray. He will come in even while we pray to make us speak many unrelated, confused, unimportant, and vain words. He will cause us to ask in vain and to waste our time of prayer. He will try to occupy our time of prayer so that the effect of our prayer will amount to nothing. Therefore, when we pray we have to guard ourselves so that our words will not deviate from the center. Once we discover that our words have deviated, we should come back. We must be watchful to aim in the right direction and persist to keep out unnecessary words. We have to guard ourselves from praying the prayers that are not prayers at all.
Not Allowing Satan to Disrupt Our Prayer with His Deception
We must be watchful in prayer and not allow Satan to disrupt our prayer with his deception. If our prayer is to be according to God’s will, we have to persist in our prayer until the end. Even when we fail, we can come before God through the blood of the Lamb; there is no need for Satan to interfere with us. We have to be like the widow who prayed until the judge had to avenge her (Luke 18:7). We must never allow Satan to cut off our prayer or damage it.
Not Falling under Satan’s Deception
of Not Making Our Prayer Specific
We must also be watchful in our prayer so that we do not fall under Satan’s deception of not making our prayer specific. There are often many things that need to be decided, many people that need to be prayed for, many central messages that need to be released, and many problems that need to be solved. However, when we pray, we seem to be short of something to pray for. There are not even words for our prayer, and we barely manage to finish two or three sentences. We have to know that Satan’s attack is present. Therefore, we have to oppose his strategies. We have to pray thoroughly for people, for things, for the truth, and for our problems. We must not let go, and we must ask the Lord to remind us of all the burdens in our prayer and give us the utterance to pray them. At the same time, we have to deal with our own slothfulness and procrastination.
Being Watchful after We Pray
Not only do we have to be watchful before we pray and while we pray, we also have to be watchful after we pray. We must be watchful to examine all the changes that happen after we pray. Among God’s children, prayer is the one thing that is most easily attacked. This is why we must be watchful to fight for a time to pray, to guard prayer, to stop prayers that are not prayer, and to be on guard against Satan’s strategy to cut off our prayer. We must remember that prayer is a service, an excellent service. We have to watch and pray, and we must practice conscientiously, so that Satan will not have the opportunity to destroy our prayer. (The Prayer Ministry of the Church, msg. 5)
