Text: Luke 21:34-36
Memory verse:
”Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.“
I Thes 5:6 NKJV
“I have to be ready to tackle tough situations of all kinds at all times”, a staff nurse at the Department of Emergency Medicine said. He continued, “As a patient’s condition may deteriorate quickly without warning, being alert and vigilant can mean the difference between life and death for them. Every time the team saves a life, the satisfaction is beyond words.”
Likewise, the scriptures leave us not in doubt about the prime importance of these attitudes in the believer’s life.
”Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.“ (I Peter 5:8).
Alertness, vigilance, soberness, and watchfulness are words that carry similar meanings. The presence or absence of these can also be the difference between eternity with God and perdition. They are the remedies of complacency and spiritual death.
“Alertness” is a conscious state of mind when all the spiritual senses are kept awake. A person who is alert maintains a high level of spiritual sensitivity to know what is present or what is absent. To be vigilant is to be watchful and circumspect. It is to keep careful watch in order to avoid danger. Similarly, to be sober is to be free from any intoxicating influences that could dull one’s judgment; to be sound in mind, self-controlled, moderate as to opinion or passion, and temperate (Eph 5:15-20).
Those who are complacent are like those who sleep or slumber. They are unconscious and unaware of their spiritual state or the dangers around them. They are like drunks whose senses have been dulled. It is a dangerous state for a believer. Jesus warns us to watch and pray.
Today, while many believers may not be drunk with wine, yet many are intoxicated by the stimulants of the world, its pleasure, its glamour and appearance (1Tim 5:6). Their senses have been dulled by the love of money, fashion, fame, and the pressure of the times. They can’t sense dangers, nor do they appreciate their spiritual state. They are like the Laodicean church who said, ”..I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—“ (Rev 3:17).
Friends, don’t despise the counsel to be alert, vigilant, sober and watchful in your Christian life. It can mean the difference between life and death for you!
Prayer points
1. Father, quicken my spiritual senses to know the things that are present or absent in my life, in Jesus’ name.
2. Father, keep me alert, sober, vigilant, and watchful at all times in my spiritual journey, in Jesus’ name.
Today’s declarations
1. I am not intoxicated by the pleasure, glamour, appearance, and fashion of the world, but I am sober-minded in all things.
2. I will always be alert and vigilant as these can mean the difference between life and death for me.
Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng