But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work He began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ and be up and about! Romans 13:11-14 (MSG)
Think back over this past week. How much of what you did was motivated by your conscious awareness of the coming of the Lord? We often get so caught up with daily duties and deadlines that we forget the big picture. We forget that Jesus is coming and that we should be living each day in light of that great future event. Not only is this not a time to be “oblivious to God”, but it is, in fact, a time to put God first and foremost in our lives. The time for lingering is over. It is time to be up and awake to what God is doing. The alarm went off hours ago!
Don’t just lolly gag around. Don’t sleepwalk through life in a sedated state of existence. Someone said to me recently, “My days were a blurred haze of busy.” I can relate to that honest evaluation and it is all to easy to get absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all our day-by-day obligations. We forget that “the dawn is about to break” and that we are here on purpose for such a time as this. We have a mission to fulfil, a message to share and mercy to show to those suffering around us. We are not meant to be frivolously frittering away on time on our every whim or fruitlessly fighting one another. These are purposeful days and, as our verse states, “we must not squander these precious daylight hours”.
Theodore H Epp wrote:
Live as though Christ died yesterday, rose from the grave today, and is coming back tomorrow.
That puts it all in perspective for me. I encourage you to take time to ponder that profound sentence and allow the Cross, the resurrection and the Coming of Christ to shape your thinking.
Today, I challenge myself to “dress in Christ” and be “up and about”! Will you do the same?