There are times in life when we get wake-up calls. No, not the ones we request when staying in a hotel, but situations that by nature of their severity, get our attention. I believe that God uses them for many purposes.
The first for me, one of many in my life, came at a younger age.
I recall my high school graduation as a night of negative enlightenment. It hit me like a ton of bricks that my childhood and years at home with my parents were coming to an end.
I was saved at the age of thirteen, but was not living the Christian life and had certainly not grown into fully surrendering all to God. However, on this milestone night, I realized the immediacy of the present and what I needed to do to prepare for the future.
So, graduation night was a wake-up call. Things were changing fast.
Wake-Up calls come with many situations in our lives;
- People lose their jobs
- Illness strikes
- Death of a family member
- Children get caught up in the wrong crowd
- Financial problems arise
- Other pressures of life begin to weigh on us.
- Sometimes, we get spiritually complacent and need to be snapped out of it. The Book of Malachi is a great study of spiritual complacency and apathy.
We all get these wake-up calls. So, what do we do?
Hopefully, we turn to God for strength, peace, wisdom and answers.
At these moments in our life, we must learn the most important lesson of all. We must turn everything over to God and totally surrender ourselves to Him.
Does this mean that there is nothing for us to do? Absolutely not.
However, after doing our part to resolve the situation, we are to trust God to see us through to the outcome.
If a wake-up call does what it is intended to do, it gets our attention and through it all comes one of God’s life lessons.
When they come, thank God for them.
RVH