HOW I AWAKE MYSELF TO GOD

I am very thankful for alarms. My iPhone is equipped with a fantastic alarm and always keeps me from staying in my slumber when I need to get up. There have been days that without that alarm I would've missed my sunrise weddings or even slept so long in my fatigue that I would've missed my day. Alarms are necessary to rouse us out of our sleep state and get up out of bed. Are you awake or asleep to God? To put it another way, are you cold or hot to God? Are you dead or alive to God? Every day of our lives we are engage in a battle to be awake or asleep to him, to be cold or hot to Him, and to be aware, alive, or dead to Him. The battle rages daily for the world and the things of this world to lull and keep us in a sleepy state, a cold state, and a dull state where God is not trusted, cherished, treasured, loved, and exalted in our hearts, minds, affections, and lives .

Lately I've been asleep, cold, and dull,and it has shown. It shows in my thought life, my attitudes, my emotions, and behaviors. The way I know I'm asleep is this; I will spend way too much time thinking about myself, my problems, my circumstances, my regrets, my fears, my anxieties, my future. and when I do I will I find  myself in a very low place. The fruit of those thoughts was depression, discouragement , despair, doubt, unbelief, loneliness, emptiness, and feelings of hopelessness. I found myself overwhelmed and overcome with darkness as I look all around me outside and inside. Most of all, I find out a serious deficit in my thoughts and heart towards God because I am so asleep. No wonder, for when all of our thoughts are centered upon the world around us and ourselves it will make it difficult for our hearts to burn with passion for God.

I need something  to wake me and to renew my heart from my spiritual dullness and sleepiness. How do I wake myself up and stay awake and alive to God. How do I turn s cold heart into a burning heart? This is what I do. This is my strategy to keep me awake and alive to Him.

It is very simple. I look to great biblical truths to fuel the fire to awaken me to remain a God-centered soul. One of the most powerful  means I use is Colossians 1:15-20.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him.
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

The Apostle Paul has just prayed for the Colossians that they would “be filled with the knowledge of [God’s] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:9–10).

In verse 14, he begins a litany of amazing truths about Jesus Christ that are probably the most concentrated description of the glories of Jesus in the entire Bible. I will mention all fifteen of them.

In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (v. 14).
He is the image of the invisible God (v. 15a).
He is the firstborn of all creation—that is, the specially honored, first and only Son over all creation (v. 15b).
By him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities (v. 16a). All things were created through him (v. 16b).
All things were created for him (v. 16c).
He is before all things (v. 17a).
In him all things hold together (v. 17b).
He is the head of the body, the church (v. 18a).
He is the beginning (v. 18b).
He is the firstborn from the dead (v. 18c).
In everything he is preeminent (v. 18d).
In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (v. 19).
He reconciles all things to himself, whether on earth or in heaven (v. 20a).
He makes peace by the blood of his cross (v. 20b).

This is worth memorizing. This is where you want to visit over and over again to awaken you to the excellencies and supremacy of Christ over all things. If your heart ever wavers and grows cold, come here. Memorize this litany of glories, and prayerfully ask God to give you affections that correspond to the measure of this supreme greatness, infinite in beauty, immeasurable, incalculable in its worth. If any person or any power or any wisdom or any love awakens any admiration or any amazement or any joy, let it be the greatest person and the greatest power and the greatest wisdom and the greatest love that exists—Jesus Christ.

Pastor Bill