Fully Awake
June 20
But when they became fully awake, they saw his glory.
Luke 9:32
Slowly, over a period of minutes, if not hours—I can’t honestly tell you which it
was—awareness pushed its way to the surface. Understanding began to replace
uncertainty. I was in the hospital and had just undergone major surgery, and
the only reason I knew that was because that’s what my recovery nurse told
me each time I awakened to ask, “Where am I?” Then back to sleep, wake up a
while later, and do it all over again until I could finally fend off the weariness
and apathy the anesthesia was causing. The same medication that helped me
endure surgery conspired to rob me of coherent thought.
Years after the accident I still remember how thick the confusion was,
trying to figure out where I was, why I was in this shape—whatever shape this
was—and why I couldn’t maintain consciousness for more than a few seconds
at a time.
When released from the hospital four days later, I was still suffering from
the sluggish behavior brought on by the anesthesia. It was more than a week
before I felt fully awake and in control of all my faculties, completely free of
the effects of the drugs.
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Scripture describes Peter, James, and John as “very sleepy” and that until they
became “fully awake,” they could not see what was taking place. They had not
noticed the transfiguration of Jesus, nor had they discovered the presence of
Moses and Elijah! It wasn’t until the heaviness of sleep was washed away that
events began to register.
What a perfect picture of the veil of deception Satan uses. Until we
become fully awake to Jesus Christ, we cannot sense His glory or realize our
potential for His kingdom. Satan wants to keep us asleep and constantly seeks
to administer anesthesia through temptation. When we give into temptation,
we become lethargic and apathetic to the cause of Christ. We must remain
vigilant so we do not fall back to sleep, becoming indistinguishable from the
world. We have a choice of whether to fight for complete awareness or be con-
tent to sleepwalk our way through life.
Prayer
“Awaken me fully, Lord, that I may be set free
from the veil of spiritual slumber. Amen.”
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