March 19th - God Wants Me to Wake up!!

Continuing on from yesterdays, http://zettelbear.blogspot.com/2013/03/march-18th-satans-seductive-lullaby.html...

Asleepawake… How do we wake up?

How does anyone awake from sleep? 

Sometimes it’s just naturally, I guess.  A dawning that rouses one from sleep.  Someone who has been lulled by Satan just having enough of that and gets back into the game, running the race.

But a lot of the time, it requires an Awakening, an Alarm.  Something startles and calls to action, threatens our wellbeing.  For example, someone who has been in the pattern of eating then escaping experiences chest pains, or has to dig out those pants that fit only after being pregnant…

Waking up like that is a reaction, not action.  I think God wants us to be in active states, furthering the kingdom on purpose. 

I heard on a Christian radio station one time an explanation of Exodus 32, the golden calf story, when the Lord tells Moses, “ ‘Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them.  Then I will make you into a great nation.’  But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God…” and intercedes for Israel and the Lord does not destroy them.

Moses didn’t change God’s mind.  God doesn’t “change His mind.”  But God allowed the threat to Israel to rouse Moses into action. 

We can stay ON and not require such a threat to wake us up, or we can wait for the alarm to sound.

For me, the alarm was my son telling me he had been actually having a hard time at school.  I asked every day, how was school.  He said, fine.  I went on eating and escaping.  All the while, something was stewing under the surface.

If I had been ON, in prayer, mindful and alert, perhaps I would have seen the issue much sooner, or perhaps circumvented the issue altogether. 

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my own food coma to be my excuse when Jesus asks me, Why didn’t you feed me when I was hungry? (Matthew 25:45 ad lib)

“ ‘Wake up, O sleeper, Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’  Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.  Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.  Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”  (Ephesians 5:14-18)

I’ll post on wine and debauchery soon.  Here are a few more be alert and awake verses:

The wife of noble character… “She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.  She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.  She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.”  (Proverbs 31: 17-18, 27)

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.  Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.  No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”  (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

“I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins… (Oh this is convicting – as I slumber, my home, my children, my house and the weeds, no protection from onslaught…).  “I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw:  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.”  (Proverbs 24:30-34)

"No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs - he wants to please his commanding officier." (1 Timothy 2:4)

"Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith..."  (Hebrews 12:1-2)