Happy February! We have only one week left here in Jeffrys Bay until my team leaves north towards Johannesburg.
A sweet thing about my squad is that we are traveling with a family of five while on the field! Bill and Katie felt called to up and move with their family to walk with our squad of forty for these nine months overseas. Watching them carry out sacrifice is truly encouraging and a blessing in getting to be the recipient of the fruit obedience produced. They have three children and the youngest, Violet, is five years old. They make our squad feel more like a family and it’s a joy!
The other day our ministry host Wendy asked Bill and Katie if Violet was at the house resting. Bill replied, “Nope, we don’t take naps anymore. They’ve outgrown them.”
I was reading at the end of Matthew and in chapter twenty-six our savior goes into a garden with his three disciples and prayed. They were WITH CHRIST and He was petitioning with the Father and they fell asleep?? Picture that…Jesus and the Father discussing kingdom matters and you up and doze off? We would never do that, right?
“And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” Matthew 26:40-46 ESV
We must not be so careless as to fall asleep if we have truly have the Holy Spirit inside us. He is the one who tells us all that the Father says, so we who walk with the Spirit must not fall doze off and miss what the Father is speaking through the Spirit. Therefor stay awake…lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.
“Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.” Mark 13:35-36 ESV“
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” John 16:13-15 ESV
“About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” Hebrews 5:11-14
We don’t take naps anymore. Wake up. Eat a good meal. Stay alert. Lean in.
“But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Matthew 24:13 ESV
-Drew
