1 Thessalonians 5:4-8 "But friends, you’re not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide, open skies and know where we stand. So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.” Today's episode reminds us that the Lord will return, and we need to be ready. It reminds us not to forget this and just sleepwalk through our lives. We are lucky because we get to know them in advance so we can be prepared for when He does come. We just need to live our lives with intention. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Let’s Not Sleepwalk Through Life
1 Thessalonians 5:4-8 "But friends, you’re not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.”
Just before these verses, St. Paul was talking about how no one knows when Jesus will come again. The time is not for us to know. However, he is saying that we are not in the dark because we know that He is coming, so how can we be taken off guard by any of this? We know the Lord will come again to judge the living and the dead. We say this each week in the Nicene Creed. This should not be a surprise to us. What Paul is saying in this first part of the verse is that we are at an advantage. There are people who do not believe; they do not go to church, and they do not follow God and all His ways. We are not those people. Even though we don’t know exactly when the Lord will return, we believe He will return at some point. This means we can always be ready for His return.
The when He is returning is not as important as the fact that He is returning. We know this to be true, and so we can be prepared. We can make sure whenever that day comes, we are ready to go. The verse goes on to say that we are sons of light and daughters of day. We live under wide, open skies and know where we stand. I am such a big fan of the light. I love thinking of God as the light. I like thinking about how we are children of light. We walk in light and not in darkness.
I know some of you feel like you are walking in darkness right now. You feel like you can’t see the light. If this is you, I want you to remember that you are a child of the light. The enemy can try and hide the light from you. He can try to cast shadows, so you think you are living in the darkness. However, He can’t take all the light away because the light lives inside of you. You have the Spirit of God living inside of you, and that is all the light that you need. When you feel like you are surrounded by so much darkness, call on the Holy Spirit to light your way.
I love the next line in these verses, “So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart.” This is such great advice. How many of us have been sleepwalking through life? I am part of Big Life mentoring with Pamela Crim, and this is a big reason many people join this group. They feel they are sleepwalking through life. We are meant to live life to the fullest. It says in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” God does not want us to waste this life that we have. He doesn’t want us to go about our days in a fog. If we are not careful, we can just fall into a routine and go through life on autopilot.
Did you know that 40-45% of your decisions are automatic based on your habits? That is almost half of all our decisions. That is a lot. What if we don’t have good habits? Does that mean we are not making good decisions? Frequently, yes. For instance, I used to be in the habit of eating pretty healthy. That meant when my husband took out the package of Oreos, I didn’t instinctively reach over and grab one. I knew that was not going to be good for me, so I didn’t take any. However, right now, I am not in the habit of eating healthy, and so when he takes out the Oreos, I grab one, ok, more than one.
St. Paul is warning us about doing this in our spiritual life. We need to be intentional in all of life, but especially in our spiritual life. It can be too easy to put things off and think we will just take care of them later. You know you need to spend time with the Lord, but he will always be there, and this movie you want to go see won’t be. You know you need to go to confession, but you could go to confession anytime, but your friends want to meet for lunch today. We know we need to love our neighbor, but that is hard, so we figure we love the next neighbor that comes along. Do you see how easy it is to “sleepwalk” through life, as St. Paul says?
We know God is coming. We need to be ready because He could come at any moment. The only thing the Bible assures us of in regard to His coming is that no one will know when He is coming and that we will be surprised and taken off guard. The verse says to let us keep our eyes open and be smart. This is great advice. Let’s not sleepwalk through life. Let’s live our lives intentionally with passion and purpose for the things we care about. The things we know are important.
The verses end with, “People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.” I love this last line of the verse. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation. Imagine how different this would be if all of God’s faithful from all denominations walked around dressed in faith, love, and the hope of salvation. Imagine if you didn’t have to be afraid of offending someone when you mentioned the Lord because you knew just by looking at someone if they knew God or not.
Sometimes, when I hear people talk about their faith in God, they are not filled with faith, love, or hope. They are filled with hate, anger, disbelief, and dread. There are also so many people who are living in hopelessness and despair right now. I know people who know God; they have a personal and intimate relationship with Him, and yet they feel very much in despair and even hopeless at times. Hopeless that things are going to get better for them. But what about the rest of us? What about you? Could you be dressed with faith, hope, and love as you go out into this world? Could I be dressed with faith, hope, and love as I go into this world?
I remember I was listening to Father Mike Schmitz one time, and he was talking about how we act in the world. He said he had heard a question one time, and it stuck with him. It has stuck with me, too. If being Christian were illegal. If it were against the law to be Christian, and you were accused of being Christian and you were on trial, would they have enough evidence to convict you? In other words, can people tell, just by looking at you and talking with you, that you are Christian? We live in a world where we are afraid to offend anyone or get in trouble, as it is not popular to talk about God these days. However, who should we be more afraid of offending, God or those around us?
Jesus is coming back one day to judge the living and the dead. What if that day were today? Would you be ready? He is not going to wait for us to be ready. This verse in the Bible was written about 2,000 years ago, give or take. If we can’t be ready with 2,000 years of lead time, we will never be ready. Stop procrastinating. Stop saying you will spend time with the Lord tomorrow. Do it today! Even if it is just 2 minutes to say, “Hey God, it’s me. I just wanted to say hi and see how you are doing.” Or you can even say something like, “Hey God, I have no idea what I am doing, but I know, or I think I want more of you in my life. Please show me how.” It doesn’t matter what you say as much as it does that you say something. Don’t put it off. We are children of the light. We have the advantage of knowing Jesus is coming back. Do something with that knowledge; don’t just waste it!
Dear Heavenly Father, please bless all of those listening to this episode. Lord, we want to prepare for your coming, please help us. Please show us one thing we can do this Advent season to help us not only get ready for your coming as a baby on Christmas day but also as you're coming again at the end of time. Help us to live in a way that people know we are Christians just by knowing us. I want others to know just by looking at me or spending time with me that I am completely, madly, and deeply in love with you! Please help me, Lord. I ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, it is free to join mentoring this month. We will focus on Mary this month. I hope you will join us on Tuesday nights at 8 P. M. EST. Remember Jesus loves you, just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My precious ones know that I walk with you. That I am not even a breath away. I am part of you.”