Don’t Fall Asleep

 

Matthew 25:13 (NLT) “So stay awake and be prepared, because you do not know the day or hour of my return.”

1Thess. 5:6 (NLT)  “So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be sober.”

 

When the children were small they needed naps. Now that I am eighty I, too, need naps. As at the beginning of our lives we needednaps, now also toward the end. We need physical naps but not spiritual ones!

 

When we are napping we lose consciousness and are unaware of what is going on around us. That’s why thieves like to come around at night. We are asleep and unaware. They hide in the darkness and can move around undetected. When the master of the house sleeps the thief prospers.

 

Spiritually, when we fall asleep, we are not thinking about the implications of what’s going on around us. We stop talking to the Lord about things and soon we find much of what is Christian is no longer in the world around us. In our democracy the Christian needs to pray and vote. He needs to be honest, one whose word is his bond, loving and caring for family and friends. In everything with prayer and thanksgiving live and act as unto the Lord. Leave the personal rewards to God’s appraisal; show preference to one another in the fear of the Lord. Never be unaware of the spiritual implications of what’s going on around you.

 

The biggest danger to the cause of Christ isn’t a violent and clearly anti-Christ world. It's Christians who fall asleep spiritually and who fail to be the salt and light that we are supposed to be. As Calvin Miller said in Once Upon A Tree, “We never march purposefully into hell; we simply fall asleep on the slopes and slide in.”