January 11

Be on your guard and stay alert! For you do not know when the appointed time will come. — Mark 13:33 BSB

There is no way to maintain faith without prayer and watchfulness. As prayer decreases, so does the strength of faith. You can neglect prayer and supplication to the point where every trace of faith seems lost, leaving you to wonder if you ever truly experienced God’s work in your heart and whether you were deceived in thinking there was grace in you at all.

Likewise, it’s through watchfulness that the love of God is sustained. If you don’t watch against your besetting sins, the snares laid for your feet, the temptations that constantly surround you, and the strength and cunning of your unrelenting enemy, you are sure to fall. If you fall, you will bring guilt, bondage, darkness, and distress into your soul, cutting off your communion with God for a time.

Therefore, you must pray and watch, for without watchfulness, prayer is much less effective. And if we neglect the Scriptures or read them carelessly or without faith, they will do us little good. They must be read with faith-filled eyes and hearts, received as God’s revelation, and mixed with faith, or they will not benefit us (Hebrews 4:2).

The life of God in the soul is a deep, secret, and sacred thing. It is true that God will sustain it; He won’t leave His work unfinished. But unless we read and pray, watch and meditate, fight against our besetting sins, and continually seek God’s face, we will notice a decline in the strength and power of our faith. And if that happens, we will find it hard to walk comfortably with God.