Do You See What’s Happening? This Is Why We Are Warned To Watch an Pray!

Matthew 24 42 says therefore stay awake for you do not know on what day your lord is coming we do not know the day nor the hour that Jesus Christ will return and so what better motivation is there to remain consistent with God than the return of Christ being watchful means that you have one eye in the Bible and you have one eye looking and verifying all the signs that the Bible is telling us you're looking at the state of the world and you're looking at what the Bible is saying regarding this I found that when I'm taking heed of God's warnings about the last days I become more focused on examining my life to ensure I am living in God's will and finally in order to be more consistent with God pray and keep praying consistency in prayer will bring you closer to Jesus and will help you to walk in Victory [Music] when you make prayer a regular practice you make communicating with God a regular practice and you have to be intentional about your prayer life in order to be consistent I found that you start small if it's five minutes today make it 10 tomorrow and then make it fifteen as you do this you will find that God will reveal himself to you through prayer you connect with God through prayer now the reason why it's so important to put God first each and every day is because there are so many competing forces and factors all around us as you go through your day are you mindful that you are exposed to so much worldliness and so much spiritual corruption and material it works to pull you away from God with this in mind my message to you today is inspired by the words found in Psalm 113 verse 2-3 let the name of the Lord be praised both now and forevermore from the rising of the Sun to the place where it sets the name of the Lord is to be praised we need to have hearts filled with praise praise attracts the presence of God praise magnifies the Lord and not your situation when you constantly praise the Lord you are saying I'd rather be in your presence Lord Jesus than to be outside and enjoying the pleasures of the world I would rather my heart and mind be focused on you Jesus rather than the distractions offered by the world so fight to praise God in your heart and in your mind at every given opportunity fight to find something a moment an opportunity to speak to him once more to sing praises to Him that way you're always in tune you develop a habit of always speaking to Jesus anywhere and everywhere you see unless you are consistent day in and day out you will never achieve anything anyone who has ever built something notable anyone who has ever built an Empire whether it be a media Empire a business Empire or even a physical Empire they all have one thing in common they were consistent so now take this principle of consistency and think about this for a moment what would happen if you were more consistent in your prayer life what would happen if you were more consistent in Reading God's word what would happen if you were more consistent in doing things for the Lord whether it's witnessing to unbelievers or simply giving to the less fortunate what would happen if all these things weren't one-offs how would your spiritual life be transformed if you became more consistent with the Lord would your faith grow it certainly would would your level of anointing increase most definitely would your gift be effective in bringing people to Christ yes yes it would so how do we become more consistent with God what are some of the Practical keys in building consistency in your walk with God one of the ways you can build consistency in your walk with God Is by setting a schedule creating a routine you know what activities you will do each and every day you know that you'll travel to work you'll know that you'll go to the gym you know that you'll cook watch TV so why not make time in your schedule whereby you know that this time is dedicated to the Lord I encourage you to set aside time 20 minutes 30 minutes whatever it is set aside time where you know you'll be praying and reading God's word time where you know you will be still and know that he is God said time aside where you'll open your heart and allow God to speak with you or rather where you listen and hear God's word in Daniel chapter 6 verse 10 the Bible says now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed he went home and in his upper room with his windows open toward Jerusalem he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as was his custom since early days Daniel had a custom a way of doing things that involved time alone with God by praying three times in a day what can you say is your custom when you can become consistent at setting aside time for the Lord He will draw closer to you what does the Christian of today look like and what should the Christian of today look like now the Bible says in First Peter 2 verse 21. to this you were called because Christ suffered for you leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps so what does this mean for us today well Christ suffered and left us an example so that we should follow in his footsteps now let's take a look at what that means for the Christian man or woman the Amplified translation for Luke 9 verse 23 says and he was saying to them all if anyone wishes to follow me as my disciple he must deny himself set aside selfish interest and take up his cross daily expressing a willingness to endure Whatever May Come and follow me believing in me conforming to my example in living and if need be suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in me taking up your cross daily means you are immersed in the things of God and you're immersed on a daily basis you are devoted to building a relationship with the Lord daily and what does that look like well it looks like prayer Jesus prayed often Jesus would go to find a quiet place so that he could pray the disciples never asked Jesus to teach them how to perform Miracles or how to preach even they asked Jesus how to pray because prayer is the fundamental building block for a relationship with God you see when you pray you're setting aside your selfish interests because you're giving the Lord your undivided attention and focus When you pray you're humbling yourself and you're saying that you do not know it all and further when we talk about what the Christian of today should look like I believe you need to pay attention to what Proverbs 1 verse 7 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge fools despise wisdom and instruction the fear of God is what motivates Godly Behavior the fear of God leads one to repent and pursue a holy life the fear of God is what keeps you on the straight and narrow when you fear God you do not take sin lightly because you know that God is Holy and pure and he does not tolerate unrighteousness and impurity another trait of a real follower of Jesus Christ is that they serve wholeheartedly all they do is to the glory of God that's their heart's desire to