“It is high time to awake out of sleep.”

Romans 13:11

      Have you ever noticed how often in the Book of God we are given “wake up calls”? Repeatedly, the Lord God commands us to wake up. He commands sinners he has awakened from death to wake up, because we are all inclined to the shameful sleep of indifference. Our blessed Savior lavishes his mercy, love and grace upon us. He gives us fresh revelations of his glory, sweet experiences of forgiveness, and rapturous times of communion with him, by which our hearts are so roused to devotion, praise and thanksgiving that we cannot imagine ever being indifferent to our great God and Savior again. — But those mountain-top experiences never last long, do they?

      How quickly the cares of the world choke the good seed! How quickly clouds of darkness hide the Sun of Righteousness. Therefore, the Lord graciously calls us and commands us to awake. — “Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust” (Isaiah 26:19; Romans 13:11-14; Ephesians 5:14).

      Yet, though the Lord calls us to awake, such is our weakness and inability, such is the sinfulness of our nature, that until the Lord himself graciously awakens us, we will sleep on like the disciples of old, even upon the very mount of transfiguration!

      Still, even in such a dead and lifeless frame, which brings leanness to our souls and sorrow to our hearts, every heaven-born soul can say, “I sleep, but my heart waketh” (Song of Solomon 5:2). There is an immense difference between the sleepy, languishing frames of the believer and the death sleep of the unregenerate. — Ours is the sleep of frailty. The unregenerate sleep in death, being dead in trespasses and sins! — We sleep in weakness. The unregenerate sleep in hopelessness. — Painful and shameful as it is, ours is the sleep of hearts in mourning, longing for Christ. The unregenerate sleep with hearts of enmity against our Beloved Redeemer. — Though we do not in such seasons enjoy our Savior, still we desire him. The unregenerate desire him not. — Though we do not hear his voice or see his face, still Christ is known, even in our lowest frames. The unregenerate know him not. — Though our blessed Savior hides his face from us, he still dwells in our hearts, even when our hearts are languishing. In the unregenerate he has no place.

Do you trust Christ? Is Christ alone your hope before God? If he is, even in your lowest condition, be assured of your Savior’s mercy, grace and love. However unconscious you may be of his presence, he remains the same. Our hope is not in our spiritual frame, but in his stedfast faithfulness! Though it is more desirable and more delightful to hold him fast in the galleries of his manifest grace (Song of Solomon 7:5). Still, grace is sure, even to the Lord’s languishing people. He promises that he will fill the hungry soul and comfort the mourning heart. He will come to those who look for him; and the soul that pines for him and seeks him shall find him.

Don Fortner

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