Still Snoozing?

Since I retired in July of 2009, the alarm clock beside my bed has gone into a state of semi-retirement of its own. Still sitting there, proudly glowing its green glow into the night, most of its functions are seldom used, thankfully. But, back when I had to utilized an alarm clock, it had a main role in my life, alerting me it was time to get up and begin my day. Romans 13:11-12 tells us that:

"...The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light."

This is a call to change our lives, and change it now. Some of you no doubt are morning people, like me. My alarm clock was set for me to get up around 5:45 AM, when I was working, but honestly, I rarely needed it. I woke up on my own and turned the alarm off before its appointed time. I was showered and dressed for work usually by 6:15. Spiritual morning people jump up and are ready to meet God’s plan for their lives. They stay well rested and in tune with the Lord with a few spiritual exercises:

** They stay up on their Bible reading.
** Their prayer life is in tip top shape.
** They live the greatest commandment, loving the Lord with all their heart, soul, and minds.
** They exercise the loving their neighbors as themselves.
** In general, they have their spiritual act together!

1Thessalonians 5:6 tells us:
So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.

Spiritual morning people are the models we all try to emulate. Now, if this spiritual description describes you to a tee, you have my permission to skip the rest of this writing. But for the rest of us, let’s move on...

Once the alarm clock in your life goes off, besides jumping up out of bed to meet the day as the morning person does, there are a couple of other ways to react to it. First, we can roll over and hit the snooze button. When the we hit the snooze button, we’re waking up for a short period of time, and then choosing to go back to sleep. Spiritually speaking, we sometimes do the same thing. We have occasional moments, even days, of spiritual awareness, then we go back to sleep.

When Jesus went to the garden to pray the night before his crucifixion, he took three disciples, Peter, John, and James, with him. In Luke 22, the we read:


39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." 41 He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed....45 When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow.

 These were men who were with Jesus through miracles, transfiguration, and now had been told of His pending betrayal and death, and, having been instructed by Jesus to pray...fell asleep. Jesus had just sounded an alarm of sorts and they rolled over and hit the snooze button. The truth is we all catch ourselves spiritually snoozing sometimes. Her are some signs that we may be spiritually "snoozing":

1. Our Bible study isn’t what is should be. (Gathering dust on the coffee table)
2. Our prayer life is lacking. (Life is going pretty well, our prayer life sometimes tails off)
3. We can’t really remember the last time we shared our faith with others.
4. We need to take a spiritual step, and we lack concern.

Maybe, right this minute, you’re hearing God lead you in a certain direction, and you’re hitting that spiritual snooze button, putting it off for another day, another week, another year. A time when you’re you feel ready to respond, so you pull the covers up over your head and stay comfortable where you are...In hotels, you can hang a "Do Not Disturb" sign on your door, so that the maids will let you sleep in. Sometimes, with God, we have a "Do Not Disturb" sign around our necks, tell Him that we’d rather live life our way, and when we’re ready, He may come in and clean. On Sunday mornings, we might have our "Do Not Disturb" signs on, keeping the Holy Spirit from working in our worship, as we await the benediction so that we can leave and get on with our lives. Christian author Richard Foster writes "If worship does not change us, it has not been worship." If we leave our worship services the same way we came in, we’ve wasted our time.

The last, and most tragic way we can respond to an alarm clock sounding is not to wake up at all. If you’ve gotten to the point where you can no longer hear God’s calling, you’ve fallen into a deep spiritual slumber...but God can wake you up. The mighty Samson was guilty of being in a deep, deep spiritual slumber. Set aside by God for special service, he ignored God’s calling for his life and let his relationship with God suffer to the point that he became arrogant, self-centered...full of himself...until he ignored and disobeyed the Lord one last time. In Judges 16 we read:

18 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, "Come back once more; he has told me everything." So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. 19 Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him. 20 Then she called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free. But he did not know that the LORD had left him.

 Talk about your spiritual slumber. Samson "did not know the Lord had left him." We can roll over and keep hitting that spiritual snooze button so often, that God’s calling on our lives becomes so distant, it now longer even arouses us at all. I pray that none of you are to that point in your lives...The next time you hear that still, small voice, how will you respond?