Although I trusted Christ as my Saviour as a child I spent some time in my early teenage years where I was not excited about my faith.  I knew God.  I went to church.  I was saved.  However, I was sleeping away my life.  Many Christians are spiritually sleeping.  Are they alive, do they have eternal life in Christ?  Absolutely!  Do they give any signs of life?  No.  The life is there, but it is not doing anything.  In Matthew 25 Jesus told a parable about people waiting for the coming bridegroom.  The purpose of the parable was to illustrate their lack of readiness for his arrival.  They didn’t know when he would come, and while they waited they slept.  Too many Christians are saved but sleeping.  They get saved and receive new life in Christ, but after that they want to put their feet up, put their heads back, and snooze until Jesus comes.

In Jonah chapter 1 Jonah was on the way to Tarshish when a storm tossed the ship in which he travelled.  They were on the brink of destruction, and the Bible says that Jonah was asleep.  A sailor came and shook Jonah awake and asked him to call on God to save them.  Can we afford to sleep while people all around us face destruction?  Do we need them to come shake us awake and ask us to pray for their salvation before we will do anything?

When Christ went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray He asked His disciples to come with Him.  While our Lord planned and prayed over our redemption’s price, the disciples slept.  While His anguish showed in sweating great drops of blood, they dozed in the cool of a garden.  While Jesus thought of the cross and the crowd, they dreamt of a throne and a crown.  They slept while they should have been watching, working and weeping.  They failed not because their spirit was unwilling, but because of the fleshly weakness.  Can we cease from the most important calling of life simply because it is difficult or uncomfortable?  Is the satisfaction of the flesh worth sleeping away our one life for God?

Ephesians 5:14 says, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”  Isaiah 52:1 says, “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion.”  Romans 13:11 reminds us that it is high time to awake out of sleep.  Have you been sleeping?  Awake!!  Has your life and time for Christ been passing you by?  Awake, let Christ give you light!!  Can you see the need of the work?  Who will do it if Christians sleep?  Awake!!  Awake!!  Awake!!

Pastor Paul Gibbesh