“Besides this you know what [a
critical] hour this is, how it is high time now for you to wake up out of your
sleep—rouse to reality. For salvation (final deliverance) is nearer to us now
than when we first believed—adhered to, trusted in and relied on Christ, the
Messiah.”—Romans 13:11 (Amplified)
Many people turn over and go back to
sleep when their alarm clock goes off in the morning, and as a result, the rest
of their morning is spent rushing through their morning routine. Our scripture reading for today tells us that
it is past time to wake up out of spiritual
sleep. We are to wake up to spiritual reality.
The Greek word for sleep in Romans
13:11 is hoop-nos and it means
spiritual sluggishness, spiritual apathy, spiritual lethargy, mental or physical
inactivity or insensibility. Everyday
that you wake up your enemy, Satan,
is going to try to convince you that you do not have any right to the things of
God. “Be
sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Satan will not be able to convince you,
if you wake up every morning
spiritually alert. One of the ways that
we can remain spiritually alert is to go to the throne room of grace every day.
God commands us to come to the
throne room of grace where we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. “…Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you
light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,
redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:14-16). A word study of the word awake
in the Greek reveals that it means collecting one’s faculties, arise
from obscurity, raise up, stand, rise again, rise, rouse from sleep, from
sitting or lying, rouse from disease, rouse from inactivity.
Inactivity of prayer life is
past. The Father has commanded us to Rouse from sleep, Awake, Arise, to Stand
up, to rise from obscurity to Call upon Him. Many scriptures command us to pray, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble and I
will deliver thee” (Psalm 50:15), “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye
shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Luke 11:9) are just a
few.
The reason that we are commanded to
pray is because our Heavenly Father has chosen to work through human vessels
like you and I to carry out His plan and purposes. He has need of us. When we are sluggish, refuse to pray, or even
become mentally and spiritually sluggish, we are allowing the enemy to control our
lives.
Here is a prayerful confession to help
reawaken you and rouse you from
inactivity.
“Father,
I confess anew that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. Lord, you are the head of my life. I completely yield myself to You. My will is now Your will. My plans are now Your plans. I repent of any and all spiritual sluggishness,
and I ask You to forgive me, and restore me to a right relationship with
You. I accept your gift of righteousness
and all that it includes; health, prosperity, peace, joy and life in
abundance. I put aside every weight and
the sin that so easily besets me. And I now
look unto Jesus, the author and Finisher of my faith, in Jesus Name. Amen.
