30/07/2011 - WAKE UP, SLEEPER!

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So the captain came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.

Jonah 1:6

There is nothing more tragic than God\’s children falling asleep while in mission. Jesus commanded us to preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15), but instead of giving attention to His order, many have sought their own interests. The problem is that those who do not do what they have been told will give account of the damage done to the ones who get lost forever.
In the verses preceding the passage above, we see that instead of following the divine commandment of going to Nineveh to cry out for that city, prophet Jonah tried to escape the order given by God, embarking on a ship bound for Tarshish. But the Almighty sent out a strong wind on the sea, and because of the storm Jonah went to the lowest parts of the ship, where he fell asleep.
In Gethsemane, Christ prayed while the disciples slept (Matthew 26:36-40a). Unfortunately, the same thing still happens in our days: when the pressures on the kingdom of God are strong, on which occasion we most need to be awake, many go to sleep. Knowing this, Jesus told us to watch and pray (Matthew 26:41). We therefore have to be careful of our faith and of the Lord\’s work and pay attention to the direction of society because the enemy is firm in his dirty purpose to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10a). The proof is that millions of people have given themselves to the underworld of immorality.
Christ, in His wisdom, appointed us as the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). So when we fail to fulfill our mission – by neglecting our duty and yielding to sin – hell rejoices because aside from the ridicule caused to the work of God due to our bad example, Satan takes the lost and even many of the saved ones to the path of destruction.
The captain of that ship asked Jonah to invoke the Lord so that those men would not perish. Today, we just have to preach the Gospel
because when we proclaim the Good News we cause the Father to operate the salvation of the lost. The mistake many people make is that they keep on crying out to the Most High instead of speaking about what is recorded in the Scriptures. As soon as they start doing what they are ordered to do, they will find out that the Almighty uses them indeed. However, for failing to act correctly, many people resort to crying out to God because they believe that only in this way the Lord will use them again. But it’s not necessary to invoke the name of the Lord for Him to accomplish what He promised.
My brethren, our attitude should be different from that of Prophet Jonah’s. Instead of sleeping, we need to wake up and do what has been commanded to us because that is how we please God. If you have been a sleeper when it comes to heeding His call, wake up and put your hands to work, because the devil applauds those who are not taking care of the divine things they have been commissioned to do.
In Christ with love,
R. R. Soares