Wake Up!

Many of you may be familiar with the wake up calls you get by request from hotels. The phone rings really loud, jolting you out of your deep slumber. When you pick up the phone, there is a polite voice on the other end (as if the polite voice makes up for the loud disrupting ringing the phone made) telling you it is time to get up. I look at Romans 13:11-14 the same way. It is a wake up call for us as Christians to straighten up and fly right. Romans 13:11 says “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed” Have you ever heard someone get fed up with something and say “It is high time I…”? Well, this is no different. The scripture is telling us that it is high time we wake up and get it together as Christians.

Next, verse 12 tells us that the night is far spent. This means we don’t have very much time. Jesus will return sooner than most of us act like. Many times we breeze through life doing and saying whatever we want. Ephesians 5:27 says that Jesus will be looking for a church without spot or wrinkle. We go about our day, not thinking about how wrinkled and dirty we are getting. We can look at Romans 13:11-14 as a call to wake up and get ourselves to the cleaners.

Sometimes, it seems as though Christians are in a state worse than the non-believers. Romans 13:13 says “Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy” Sadly, many of God’s people get caught up in these things. How can we get the work that God has called us to do done if we are the ones on the alter every week begging for forgiveness? I understand that we are not perfect. We will not be perfect until we get to Heaven. However, there are somethings that we should be past by now. Yet, we still get hung up on them time after time.

Ladies, time is running short. These are the last of the last days. We will have to give an account of ourselves to God (see Romans 14:12). We will be held fully responsible for our words and actions. God loves us so much. He doesn’t want any of us to be left behind and shut out of Heaven. He tells us how to live right and He gives us numerous opportunities to repent. Let’s get our acts together. Romans 13:14 tells us how to do it. It says “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” It is really simple, just put on Christ.