If I Should Wake Before I Die

If your house was on fire would you be angry with your neighbor for pounding on your door and shouting to awaken you from sleep? Like the character Grima Wormtongue who deceived and debilitated King Theoden, in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy, our culture can bewitch us with whispers and lies that bid us to keep sleeping while darkness and destruction billows on the horizon. As C.S. Lewis’ demonic deceiver said, “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one–the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,…Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape.” [1] Friend, God kindly bids each of us to wake before we die! Will you wake up before it’s too late?!

If I Should Wake Before I Die

When I was a small child, my parents taught me a prayer that I believe was part of the vital input that God used to awaken me to His Presence and my accountability to Him.

The prayer says:

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

If I should die before I wake,

I pray the Lord my soul to take.^[1]

It’s a simple prayer, yet it contains some powerful truths that were instrumental in shaping my thinking about the unpredictability of life, the inevitability of death and my eventual day of reckoning before God.

Fortunately, that prayer wasn’t my only exposure to the revelation of God and the Christian worldview. Our family’s affiliation with a conservative Lutheran church afforded me a good deposit of Biblical truth through what that faith tradition calls “Confirmation”. In Confirmation, I was confronted with the Law of God through Luther’s Small Catechism^[2] where I began to see the basis of my accountability to God. I learned that God is pure and upright and that He expects moral purity in our lives, too. I didn’t enjoy Confirmation class. I didn’t like what I learned. Hearing about God’s hatred of sin didn’t make me feel good. In fact, over the subsequent years of my adolescence, I became increasingly more uncomfortable with the growing sense that I was living an immoral life. Thankfully, God didn’t leave me in despair. He brought into my life other voices who built on those foundational truths and pointed me to the Savior, Jesus Christ. (You can read about my spiritual journey at: https://tinyurl.com/ucv79h4.^[3]

In God’s mercy, He used the conscience-shaping truth of a child’s prayer and subsequent exposure to His Law to goad me from slumber and to help me “wake before I die” so that I might flee from the wrath my sin deserves and find refuge in the Person and work of Christ.

“Shhh, You’re Gonna Wake Him Up!” Recently, I participated in an adult Bible study where two individuals attempted to comfort another struggling soul by asserting that “guilt is never from God”. I’ve spent time with this group, and I’m certain that those dear people meant well. Perhaps they were attempting (albeit very poorly) to voice the core idea of Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” My concern that day, and my ongoing concern for many in our world, is that well-meaning, but inarticulate (or worse yet, misguided) people, are urging others to keep on sleeping by offering false comfort when what is needed is assistance in waking up so they might “flee from the wrath to come” and find the forgiveness God has provided for us through Jesus Christ. (Nahum 1:2-3, Matthew 3:7, Romans 1:18-20, Romans 2:5, Ephesians 5:3-6, Revelation 6:12-17)

“Shouldn’t Religion Make Us Feel Good?!” If, at this point, you feel like pushing back against the idea of God’s judgment by emphasizing God’s kindness and grace, you’re not alone. Dr. Everett Piper, the President of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, noted that “Our culture has actually taught our kids (and some of us older adults) to be… self-absorbed and narcissistic. Any time their feelings are hurt, they are the victims. Anyone who dares challenge them and, thus, makes them ‘feel bad’ about themselves, is a ‘hater,’ a ‘bigot,’ an ‘oppressor,’ and a ‘victimizer.’’’ ^[4] Piper continues, “That feeling of discomfort you have after listening to a sermon (or reading a blog) is called <your> conscience. An altar call is supposed to make you feel bad. It is supposed to make you feel guilty. The goal of many a good sermon is to get you to confess your sins—not coddle you in your selfishness. The primary objective of the Church and the Christian faith is your confession, not your self-actualization.”^[5]

In other words, guilt can be a good thing if it motivates someone to take action to prepare to meet with God! In all the noise and distraction of earthly living, please remember that each of us will very soon (probably sooner than we think) be called to answer to God for how we’ve lived.

Friend, are you ready to meet God? If you’re not sure please read my article/ Gospel tract at https://tinyurl.com/wrka4f2 ^[6]

If you’re sure you’re fully awake, how about your family members? Are you assisting the young people in your life to experience a spiritual awakening by intentionally laying a solid foundation of objective truth and Biblical knowledge in their impressionable minds? If you’d like some direction on steps one can take with children, (and possibly invigorate your own faith) allow me to suggest a couple of quality tools.

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones

Sally Lloyd-Jones has done a great job of telling many important Bible stories in a very clear way and explaining how these narratives point to or are fulfilled in what Jesus did when He came into the world to rescue us! Get a copy and start reading these well-illustrated and profound faith-building stories to your little ones!

The New City Catechism: 52 Questions and Answers for Our Hearts and Minds (Gospel Coalition)

The New City Catechism was prepared by the folks at Redeemer Presbyterian (Pastor Tim Keller). The Westminster Bookstore describes it this way, “Simple, visual, biblical instruction in heavenly citizenship, distilled from the great and historic statements of the faith. Continuing the church’s age-old tradition in a thoughtfully arranged 52-question format, this succinct, interactive catechism equips young and new followers of Christ with the crucial truths of God’s Word. Perfectly suited for one-year memorization plans.”

I’ve used these resources with some of my grandkids and they’ve really enjoyed the songs which we’ve played on my guitar as well as with the free recordings available online and through the App Store for both iPhone and Android phones. ^[7] ^[8] ^[9]

Friends, if I’ve learned anything about this unpredictable world it’s that time is of the essence! Please don’t wait to do whatever is necessary to prepare to meet God!

If you want to talk further about how to move toward God and what it means to have peace with God, just let me know!

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14 ESV

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men…” 2 Corinthians 5:10,11a NASB

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