You Snooze, You Lose!

Have you ever slept in and missed an opportunity? Have you experienced sleeping through your alarm and completely missing or at least becoming late for an important appointment? Has your mind ever drifted off into the land of daydreams causing you to miss some instructions or an important announcement? To snooze at the wrong time could mean missing the opportunity of a lifetime. There is the need to WAKE UP to that which is coming and what it is that needs to be done now.

Note the admonishment Paul gave as he stressed the glorious truth regarding the resurrection of Christ and that which is to come for us.

“WAKE UP from your drunken stupor, as is right, AND DO NOT GO ON SINNING. For SOME HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. I say this to your shame.” ( 1 Corinthians 15:34 ESV)

To continue to snooze would be to shamefully lose! Are we alert regarding our own activities? Are they right? Are they properly linked to a knowledge of God? If not, we will find ourselves staggering through life from one ideology to another rather than finding a steady footing in the truth.

Even as we have acknowledged God and the truth of His Word, it is possible to become complacent with where we are and begin to sleepily drift off. It is important to remain AWAKE and alert to what is going on within us and how we are to continue living in preparation for things to come.

Note the warning to the church at Sardis.
“(1) And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. (2) WAKE UP, and STRENGTHEN WHAT REMAINS and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. (3) Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. IF YOU WILL NOT WAKE UP, I WILL COME LIKE A THIEF, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.’” ( Revelation 3:1-3 ESV)

To snooze, they only stood to lose! The present was the time to WAKE UP and strengthen what life remained. To be AWAKE would mean no surprise because of their readiness regarding things to come whenever they would take place. (note also 1 Thessalonians 5:4-6)

May we keep in mind Paul’s exhortation to the church at Rome.
“(11) Besides this you know the time, that the HOUR HAS COME for you TO WAKE FROM SLEEP. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. (12) The NIGHT IS FAR GONE; the DAY IS AT HAND. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” ( Romans 13:11-12 ESV)

To snooze, we lose! How AWAKE are we? Let us not keep pushing the snooze button, but WAKE UP to the alarm of the need for our readiness and the readiness of others. It may be later than we think! Therefore let us get up and wipe the sleep out of our eyes so that we can focus clearly on the life we are to live! Let us stand up and stretch with an upward view toward God and the glorious things He has in store for us. Recognizing the full realization of our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed, let us eagerly press on in the light of truth as we look forward to that eternal day when we will be caught up together with our Lord.

Have a great day READY TO RISE AND SHINE IN THE LORD!
Carl

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