An Urgent Wake-Up Call | Romans 13:11–12

“This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living.” (Romans 13:11–12 NLT)

This month, we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation. And this month’s devotions will tie into that celebration. They will also tie into our nation’s greatest need at the quarter-millennium mark in our history: the need for revival.

Let me start with a few questions. Think of the last time you got a phone call in the middle of the night. Did the person begin the conversation with the question, “Did I wake you?” If so, did you have the urge to say, “No, I was already awake”?

Sometimes when I watch television with my wife, she will pick a show that I don’t find very interesting, like some British baking show. And before long, I’ll fall asleep. And when I open my eyes, I’ll find my wife staring at me. “You were sleeping,” she’ll say. And my first instinct is to say, “No, I wasn’t,” even though I woke myself up with my own snoring.

What is it about human nature that causes us to deny that we’re sleeping? Maybe we see tiredness as a weakness. Maybe we’re reluctant to admit that we’re not bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and fully alert every second of the day.

It’s one thing to be physically asleep and not own up to it. It’s quite another thing to be spiritually asleep and deny it—and not just for an individual believer. A nation can be spiritually asleep, and I think that’s the condition the United States finds itself in right now.

This week we will celebrate the grace that God has shed on our country. We will recount the many blessings He has bestowed on us over the past 250 years. Our celebrations will be marked by loud music and fireworks. Yet even then, we will go on spiritually sleeping.

So as the Fourth of July approaches this year, I will be praying for a revival for our nation. And revival begins with a spiritual awakening—a profound awareness of our distance from God and our need to close that distance.

I will be praying for a sense of spiritual urgency among God’s people. The apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Rome, “This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living” (Romans 13:11–12 NLT).

It’s time to sound the alarm. The time for revival has come.

Reflection question: How can you be a “spiritual alarm clock” to the people God has placed around you?

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