What time do I need to leave?
How much time do I need to get ready?
Which now leads to the variables in this daily calculation….
How much time for breakfast? (many days I skip this one)
How much time do I need for devotional time? (unfortunately,
I skip this one too many days)
What time do I need to get up?
It’s at this moment the battle lines start to be drawn up.
How many times will I SMACK the “SNOOZE” button, 1 or 2
times? On my alarm clock, each SMACK of the “SNOOZE” button gives my weary
bones another 9 minutes of sleep time. (My wife claims this is sometimes the
best sleep of the night)
I decide on 1 SMACK for the “SNOOZE” Button on this day (I
make plans to actually use this 9 minutes to pray for those in my life, before
I get up for the day).
The calculations are complete. The battle lines are drawn up on the boarder of “1 SMACK of
the SNOOZE ”, and the alarm is set.
But something happens in the night. The enemy infiltrates
our camp and filles my head with propaganda that becomes evident the next
morning 9 minutes after I’ve SMACKED the “SNOOZE” the first time. This voice in my head of the enemy
says…
“Just 9 more minutes,
hit the SNOOZE one more time.”
I have to admit, in the time span of only 4 or 5 “beeps”
of my alarm, the enemy has given me at least 15 great reasons why I should hit
the SNOOZE button a second time.
And before I know It, I’ve SMACKED the SNOOZE a 2nd
time.
9 minutes later, that battle intensifies. The enemy begins to dig deeper into his
bag of tricks. Now my head is
filled with all the things that I can “skip” and make up time for to get the
rest I deserve. And before you
know it, I’ve SMACKED the SNOOZE a 3rd time.
At the next sound of the next alarm, the enemy now uses his
strongest weapon of all, GUILT.
Now he begins to make me feel guilty for the first 3 times I SMACKED the
SNOOZE , and begins to make me feel as though I’ve messed up so bad, I might as
well skip going to the meeting and just call in over a conference call…. It’s
only a “white lie”. Just blame my tardiness on sickness, or the traffic, or a
detour in the road…. And I sadly SMACK the SNOOZE a 4th time.
When I finally arise for the day, I have this feeling of a
grey cloud over me. I have a
combination of anger and resentment both at myself and at my enemy for this
happening to me again. The result
of this raging war with the SNOOZE button is having a negative impact on my
whole day.
My point of all this.
How many times have you SMACKED the SNOOZE button on the
Holy Spirit in your life?
God has provided the Holy Spirit to guide us toward His one
and only Son Jesus. And for many, we
continue to listen to and believe the enemy’s propaganda and we SMACKED the
SNOOZE over and over again, avoiding getting up and following Jesus. This leads to people walking around
during the day, feeling like a grey cloud of guilt is over them and it effects
all aspects of their lives.
Others have awaken to the Holy Spirit’s guidance and have
begun to serve and follow Jesus as one of His disciples, but when the Holy
Spirit points them to doing something outside their comfort zone, like getting
involved in a small group, becoming more active in their church, forgiving
people who have hurt them in the past, adjusting their lifestyles and choices
to match those of Jesus, they just “SMACK the SNOOZE” and quite God’s Spirit in
them.
If you battle with “SMACKING the SNOOZE”, I’ve got good
news. In a way, God’s Holy Spirit
is just like our alarm clocks at home.
As long as the alarm is “ON”, no mater how many times you’ve “SMACKED
the SNOOZE”, in just a few minutes, the alarm will go off again.
So, Stop SMACKING the SNOOZE. Get up and get on with your day. We’ve all wasted too much of our life, just lying there
waiting on the next alarm.