Rise and Shine!

Jonah directly disobeys God by choosing to go to Tarshish instead of Nineveh, where God called him to minister. Jonah moves away from God (but we all know you can't hide from God) and his soul begins to get a little sleepy. By the time he gets on the boat to Tarshish, Jonah's rebellion deadens his spiritual senses. Even though God sends a huge storm to warn Jonah of his disobedience and stir Jonah back to Himself, Jonah does not care. His physical body enters a deep sleep reflecting a heart that does not fear God. The rest of the men on the boat recognize that someone is responsible for this storm! The unbelievers take God more seriously than Jonah! The captain yells at Jonah, "What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god" (Jonah 1:6).  But Jonah's sin put him to sleep.  

"No noxious drug can give such deadly sleep as sin." Spurgeon.

I think Christians today need to ask themselves the same question. "Why are you asleep?...How in the world are you able to sleep through this life threatening storm?" We have become so spiritually unconscious that sin no longer bothers us. We are used to it. Sin numbs our senses so that we forget its affects and where we are spiritually. Sin spreads our bed of pleasure, fluffs our pillow of comfort, and sweetly tucks us in with a deceitful kiss and a lustful lullaby. Satan loves when God's followers are asleep for they are of no use to the Kingdom. If our soul is asleep, we are no threat to Satan nor help to God. 

It is impossible to indulge the flesh and please our sinful desires while not, at the same time, sing our soul to sleep. 

It's funny how we can preform some of life's conscious functions while asleep. We can think, we can dream, we can talk, we can walk, and we can even feel. The same is true for spiritual sleep. We can talk about spiritual things, we can walk religiously, we can think about moral things, we can feel happy for other's good's deeds, and feel sad for the sin of the world all while in a sinful slumber. Even though Jonah eventually witnesses to Nineveh, Jonah's soul never wakes up. While the Ninevites are saved, Jonah's heart is far from the Lord. Pride and resistance dug Jonah into a pit of emotional anguish (Jonah 4:3). The job may have gotten done, but Jonah's heart was not in it. While God still works through the unwilling, God wants a loving servant not an apathetic doer. 

If we are spiritually awake, our spiritual senses are heightened. We are alert to godly things. We are aware of God's reality, His Son, our sin, the Word, the gospel, and eternity with Him. The things of God are not a fairytale or a far off idea. They are real, they are true, and they affect the way we live. How? By steadfastly serving God, passionately pursuing His desires, attacking sin with all our might, and seeking to win the souls of unbelievers. 

When Jesus went into the Gethsemane to pray, he told his disciples to wait for him. When Jesus returned, they were asleep. Waiting on God requires effort on our part. We stay spiritually awake when we watch and pray. Keep watch over the state of your heart. Stay alert to the devil's schemes for he prowls around looking for someone to devoir. Be quick to the draw on sin. Be ready to fight against temptation with God's word. Vigilantly feed your spiritual body more than your hungry flesh. 

And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Mark 14:37-38

Praise the Lord that we were awakened to new life by the blood of Jesus. We are alive in Him! No matter what we do, we will never fall into a sleep we can never awake from. But we can take spiritual naps. Do not sleepwalk through life. It's easy to "stay awake" during church and "be conscious" in Christian fellowship. But what about in our comfortable homes or materialistic malls? Spiritual awareness affects every area of our everyday life. We cannot maintain intimacy with God if we are half awake. Just like Jonah's disobedience lured him into a sinful slumber, our sin draws us into a deceitful daze. When we are spiritually asleep, we are of no use for God's Kingdom. 

We Christians have the hope of the world. As Jonah was the only man on the boat who held the key to ending the storm, so are Christians the only people who hold the key to peace, joy, and salvation. So I ask you the same obvious question Jonah was asked, "What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god!" The end is drawing near. Wake up!

Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14

 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. Romans 13:11

 ☎︎

The Girl Next Door