Time to Wake Up
Romans 13:11-14
Mornings are hard for many people. Some can hop out of bed and tackle the day without any problems, but some love pushing the snooze button five or six times before even thinking about getting out of bed. I have had times in my life where I hated getting out of bed, and others where I could not wait to get up. Usually, I wanted to get up because there was something about the day that I was looking forward to. Children wake up on Christmas morning and many do not seem to have a problem. Take that same child on a school morning, and you may be practically dragging them out of bed. They may very well be mostly asleep until lunch time. I know that was the case for me many days.
Paul tells his readers, “…now it is high time to awake out of sleep…” (Romans 13:11). In other words, do not push the spiritual snooze button anymore. Whatever the reason why you have been procrastinating spiritual growth in your life, now is the time to get out of the rut. The reason to wake up is because “our salvation is nearer than when we first believed”. Every minute of every day, we are drawing nearer and nearer to our reward. As Christians, every morning is like a “Christmas morning” not a “school morning”. We can look forward to the day because we always have something to look forward to.
What do we have to look forward to? Well besides our salvation, we can look forward to living lives of light. As Christians, we are excited to walk “properly”. This is the idea of behaving in ways that are appropriate for our reward. We satisfied in this lifestyle, and we look forward to living it. It is a relief to not be bound by the daily pulls of self-gratification, which is always impossible to achieve, and wanting what others have, which never fulfills us even if we are able to get it. Instead, we are satisfied with simply putting on the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives. It is a simpler and more peaceful day. It is a day not controlled by consumption and pleasure, but by Jesus. Life does not have to be a nightmare, but rather, a beautiful morning that we are ready to tackle. It is time to wake up to this beautiful morning of a life with Christ.
