Ignoring the alarm?

Teach me how to live to please you, because you’re my God. Lead me by your blessed Spirit into cleared and level pastureland. (Psalm 143:10 MSG)

Gonna ask a hard question today - who you living to please most today? Now, before you just haul off and answer, 'Why, Jesus, of course!', let's do a little heart examination. I have to do this from time to time because I have a tendency (and you may be like this, too) to get a little complacent in my 'following'. There are times I find myself living to please God, on fire for him, loving time in his Word and enjoying times of deep emotional connection with him. There are also times when I find myself easing back, settling in, getting a little too comfortable with my faith walk. I am glad we can count on him to call us to attention once again, bringing some form of a reminder that we need him, aren't paying as close attention as we should, and require a little adjustment in our focus. 

I remember a time back when I put an old alarm clock radio out in my workshop. It is a detached shed building about 50 feet from the back of the house. I liked to listen to the local Christian station so my time working out there wasn't so quiet. There is just something about praise and worship music that stimulates me and I enjoy the work a bit more. Late one night, in the wee hours of the morning, I could hear this faint beeping sound from somewhere. I got up, thinking maybe it was a smoke detector or some sort of thing. When I could not find the culprit in the house, I racked my brain trying to figure out what it could be. You guessed it - the alarm was beeping inside the workshop! I had inadvertently turned the dial to 'alarm' when I shut it down for the day. 

While the alarm clock was way outside, the 'call' to arise was still heard. God's Word has a way of being an 'alarm' to us on occasion, even capable of waking us even when there is a distance created that makes the alarm a little 'duller' than normal. It isn't that his Word has gone away - it is that we haven't been paying close attention to the details it contains. We just aren't where we were supposed to be, doing what we were asked to do, or giving what we were asked to give. That alarm clock was outside of the house, yet it awakened me from a deep sleep inside the house. It 'niggled' me awake until I arose to discover where it was coming from. God's Word has a way of 'niggling' us awake spiritually, so that we will arise and draw close, discovering exactly what he has for us there. 

The more we desire to be taught his Word, the more it will become the 'alarm' that is set off when we shouldn't be drifting into that 'spiritual slumber'. We might not realize that we have been living for ourselves a bit too much lately, but his Word has a way of letting us know when our focus turns from him to ourselves. I could have ignored the alarm since it wasn't in the house, but it would have gone off the next day and the next, until I finally addressed it. As that spiritual alarm sounds, we can either turn over and ignore it, or we can listen, arise, and address it. Just sayin!