HOY GISING!

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Are you dead, or alive? Just making sure: Pulse? Check. Heartbeat? Check. The rest of you? Check and double check!

So, if we're alive and kicking, why does the bible refer to us as either dead or asleep ? Ephesians 5:14 ― “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

"Hoy Gising!" (Awake!)  was Pastor Paul Chase's recent teaching. He was speaking of course of our being dead to our sins, as written in Ephesians 2:5; and how Jesus gives us life if we put our faith in Him ― believing His Word and following His example.

Come to think of it, many go to bed meditating on their supposedly unsolvable or hopeless situations:

"My debts are sky-high? How do I escape?"

"How could I cover up my work boo-boos? My job is in danger!"

"What if I've been targeted in my company's the next round of retrenchments?"

"What if my diagnosis is cancer and I only have a few months?"

Replaying scenarios like these in your mind will surely deprive you of sleep, even making you wish you were dead or wouldn't wake up to a new day ― to escape from this sinkhole.

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But Lamentations 3:22-23 says, "The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."

Morning always brings with it new grace, new mercy, new blessings; but one needs to get up!

"Don't allow your bed to be your place of surrender," says Pastor Paul. "Get out of your sleepy mode. If you make decisions out of a foggy mind and emotion, you're bound to stumble."

Waking up makes one sober-minded, wise, sensible, intelligent, says  Ephsesians 5:15-16. "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil."

Sure, you feel your circumstances chomping you up alive. I have a lot of those episodes myself; and I'd always been tempted to put my hands up, "I give up! I'm outa here!"  

Still, I cling to His promise not to allow me to be tempted beyond my capacity to endure, and that He will always give me a way out. 

  

His solution is coming! And it's wisdom that's wiser than any peace broker or psychiatrist or bank officer can offer. Only be wise and humble and dependent on Him.

Be assured: Jesus has everything in control. He is the Lord, ain't He? He too has engraved you in the palm of His mighty, powerful Hand!

"These things I have spoken to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

Resolve to wake and stand up tomorrow seeking after Him who died in your place so that you may have life.