Day 5: Awake and sober
But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness… You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober (1 Thessalonians 5:4-6).
Almighty God our Father, You are from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 90:2). But for us, life on earth is transient and fleeting—For soon it is gone and we fly away (Psalm 90:10).
Father, our times are in Your hands (Psalm 31:15). But we were created for a specific purpose, made very clear in Scripture: You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9).
And always, You call us to be mindful of the brief time we have to do the good works You have prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). You call us to be alert and of sober mind (1 Peter 5:8). And You instruct us to live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:15-16).
Lord, the days are indeed evil. Darkness is all around. But Jesus, the light of life (John 8:12), the promised hope for a world in darkness, unequivocally declared, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world" (John 9:5). And to His followers He delegated the task of impacting the darkness when He told us, "You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14).
Help us Lord, to rise and shine. Help us to be fully awake and sober. We are not given the option to become mired in a mindset of powerlessness. We are not given the option to retreat into helplessness, lamenting, hand-wringing, avoidance, resignation, and sluggishness. We are called instead to "double down" on the command to love others (Romans 13: 8-10), even within—especially within—the context of the encroaching darkness:
And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here (Romans 13:11-12).
Help us to grasp the brevity of life as David did this when he prayed, “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is...” (Psalm 39:4).
Give us an outlook towards eternity. Send us out, O Lord of the harvest, into the overflowing harvest field—to the harassed and helpless (Matthew 9:36-38). Teach us to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that [our] labor is not in vain in the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58 – NKJV).
May we commit to the Lord whatever we do (Proverbs 16:3), and pray daily the words of Moses, the man of God, Establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands (Psalm 90:17).
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