Pray and Watch to Be Prepared

During the last week of His mortal life, Jesus and the disciples spent much time in the temple where He gave some of His most powerful sermons. On a particular day, while they moved about the temple, the disciples marveled at the magnificence of the building and the riches it contained. Jesus took the opportunity to prophesy to the disciples about the coming destruction of the temple and the signs that would precede His return to the earth. 

After describing the calamities and dire events that would precede His Second Coming, Jesus gave this counsel to His disciples in His day, which applies to those of us who strive to be His disciples in our day:

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
--Luke 21:36

Prayer and watchfulness prepare us for the coming of Christ. We watch for signs, and we watch ourselves. We do not want His coming to sneak up on us out of ignorance or because we are blinded and numbed by sin. 

In our prayers we can ask for help in our preparations. If we truly pray with real intent, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done," we will be open to the whispering of the Holy Ghost, and we will see His coming, even while He is yet a great way off. If we pray for strength to defeat Satan and overcome the natural man, the Lord will gird us with truth and soften our hearts so the Spirit can penetrate us and change us and prepare us for all things. 

Prayer increases our watchfulness, and diligent watching always brings us back to prayer.