Awake and Attentiveনমুনা

An Awakened Heart

In my world, there are people who have a super special gift, a gift that I long for. You may wonder what spiritual gift I'm talking about. But it's not just that. I'm talking about the ability to sleep anywhere, no matter the context, the noise, or what's going on around them.

Why am I telling you this?

Many of us fall asleep spiritually on a regular basis. We live asleep and don't realize what's going on around us. We find our eyes too closed to see what God is doing.

In today's reading, there is an urgency with which the prophet Isaiah speaks to the nation of Israel.

It is curious that the actions mentioned by the prophet are not actions that God will perform for them, but He tells Israel: "Wake up... free yourself from the chains... shake off the dust." He speaks to them that way because He wants the people of Israel to do their part.

The Israelites were in exile, had faced much suffering under the oppression of the Assyrians, had lived through difficult times, and were in a long period of uncertainty. It is in that context that God speaks to them through the prophet to realign their hearts. He seeks to lift them up and encourage them to raise their eyes from their situation and focus on what they were about to do.

I love that at the beginning of the chapter the prophet uses the words "Wake up, Zion, wake up!"

Many times in difficult moments we fall asleep in our faith, we fall asleep in our spirit. Today God wants to do something new in our life, but for that to happen we need an awakening in our heart. And this is nothing less than a revival. It is not a matter of seeking the spectacular, many times in doing so we miss out on the miraculous that God is doing in a different way than we expected.

Revival is experienced by waking up and seeing what God is doing now. Not by focusing on what He did in the past, but by focusing on what He is doing today and where He will take us tomorrow.

Considering the situation that we are experiencing in our world, it is extremely important that the church is awake and attentive.

The word "awake" in the original Hebrew, means to rise up, awaken and open one's eyes.

Are you awake to the things of God in your life? 

My friend, wake up! Wake up your heart, your spirit, and your expectation, because only in this way can you live attentive to all that God can and wants to do in your life and through it.