Devotional Part 8

08 Apr 2021

 Mark 13:32-37

“Stay awake"

Jesus commands us to stay awake, to remain alert. His parable is of a master who has gone on a journey but could return at any moment.

His servants are called to be vigilant, ever at the ready, prepared for his return.

The house is to be prepared, cleaned, swept, beds made, fire burning, water drawn, pantry stocked, everything made ready and in proper order, in a state befitting the master upon his return.

There is no room for complacency, no place for laziness to creep in.

The servants of the master can make no provision for the flesh. We are in no way to accomodate it, to give it any place within the house that belongs to the master, bears his name, and is to be a dwelling place solely dedicated to Him.

In this there are two clear threats, those from within, and those from with out.

If we are to stay awake we must know ourselves. We must know our own areas of weakness, where we allow the flesh to gain a foothold and the means by which we justify doing so.

I think that, if we are honest, there’s only so much we can do for ourselves in this regard. Regular reading of the word so that we are washed in it, swept clean by it, our minds renewed, our thinking changed.

Scripture teaches us that as a man thinks in his heart, so he is. The work of the word is to renew our minds so that we think differently and our lives are changed as a result.

The Spirit of God acts privately through the word in the life of the disciple. It is the Spirit who leads us into all truth, teaches us all things, and reminds us of what the Lord has said. How can we be reminded of that which we have never known.

It is so often the case that the Lord’s rebuke in my life comes by the Spirit reminding me of the word and applying it to my life.

The word is paramount.

All of the classic spiritual disciplines come into play here also, prayer, fasting, etc, but I think the one we are most oft to ignore is the need for deep relationship if we are to remain awake and at the ready.

Deep relationship and lives that are nit together through relationship is a spiritual discipline and practice. Surely that is made evident to us in the Lord’s Supper?

More often than not we focus on the individual person at the table of the Lord. Each individual coming up to take the elements as an act of repentance, faith, and identification with Jesus. But surely as we take these elements in community together, as we take communion, we celebrate our common union in Christ, identifying with Him first and foremost, but as we do so, surely we are also identifying with each other as His body gathered around His table. We come together in koinonia, in fellowship, as one family, sons and daughters of the living God, and brothers and sisters in Christ. This means something. This something is necessary to our fellowship with the Lord and to our following Him in The Way as His disciples.

We need to let others into the house, into our lives. To see every nook and cranny, to see where the dust might be gathering, where I’ve swept around the furniture without moving it to get at what lies beneath.

We are so individualistic and value our privacy so much that we shudder at the thought of opening ourselves to such inspection, but I believe we must.

It’s not simply about transparency or accountability groups. It’s about having deep abiding relationships with a select group of people from whom we hide nothing.

We all have blind spots, areas of weakness or sin that we find difficult to see or that we justify to ourselves.

We need to have others in our lives who can lovingly but truthfully call out these areas and shine the light on that which we’d rather allow to remain in the dark.

We must remember that it is in the dark and out of sight that mould and all forms of cancer grow best, undetected, undiagnosed, untreated. They will inevitably lead to sicknesses of all kinds.

However, if we can’t see these areas for ourselves, or worse, we justify these areas of sin to ourselves so that we can not longer see them for what they really are, then how are we alone to address and deal with them?

Surely that is the role of the Spirit I hear you say. Well you are right. The Spirit can and does work in the life of the individual to expose these areas. However, I think we have neglected the truth that the Spirit works through the word in the life or our brothers and sisters as well, not only to encourage us in the Lord, but also to lovingly rebuke us and bring correction in faith.

Relationship is essential to overcoming the flesh.