Keep your heart especially after good duties. When Christ had been praying and fasting, then the devil came and tempted Him (Matthew 4:2-3). When we have been most enlarged in our services, then Satan will tempt us to pride and security. Many Christian's hearts, like bows, stand unbent after shootings; they are apt to grow more remiss, as if duty were a sufficient spell and antidote against temptation. Do we not know that Satan always lies waiting? He is more angry with us after duty; those prayers which appease God incense Satan, and if we lay down our weapons, he will attack us and wound us.
After David's victory over the Assyrians, he grew lustful and defiled Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:4). After we have gotten a victory over Satan in duty, then let us fear lest our hearts give us the slip. When God had driven Adam out of the garden, He placed a flaming sword at the east of it to guard the Tree of Life (Genesis 3). When we have cast out the devil by prayer and fasting, let us set a strong guard about our hearts to keep them so that the enemy does not make a re-entry. ~Thomas Watson, The Spiritual Watch
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