Awake and Waiting

Luke 12
35 "Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning,
36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.
37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.
38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants!

John 9
39 Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind."
40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, "Are we also blind?"
41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains.

Commands: ready for action, keep lamps burning...

Analogy: the wedding feast.  We don't really have that now, we have hospital waiting rooms.  At any hour you are ready to hear the news, you are awake, not sleeping, to see the condition of the one you love.  

Blessing: on those found awake.  On those found ready, waiting expectantly.

Promises:  He will come and serve them.  

When: the second or third watch of the night.  

My second and third watch of the night occurs in my awake life at two times.  One, when things are going well.  When I feel like it's time to relax, when there is no big trial and need to wait on the Lord.  The other time it occurs is when life is busy.  When as a mom I have soccer games to attend, holiday's to prepare for, work is slammed.  Will I be ready then? Am I expecting God to show up when things are going well?  Do I remember my purpose in life then is to be a waiting servant? And am I really awake to His mission when I'm checking my phone to make sure I didn't miss an appointment, while cooking dinner and getting the kids homework done?  When life is swirling about me and I am caught in the vortex of "too much" am I awake, tuned into His voice called me to wait for Him? 

The Pharisees were supposed to wait for Him.  They were experts in the law, they knew all the signs that He would come.  The problem was they weren't awake.  For them Jesus came to judge.  Were they waiting for Him or a god of their own creation? They foolishly thought they could see because they knew God's word.  The problem is, unless you know God, His word doesn't wake you up.  

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