“But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭13:11-14‬ ‭(MSG‬‬)

Heavenly Father, thank You for the precious life You have given me. Thank You for each waking minute; thank You for my beating heart and the breathe in my lungs.

Help me to remember this life is a gift, which is meant to please You. Forgive me when I squander it away with the cares of this world. Forgive me when I doze off and waste away the time You’ve blessed me with. Remind me Lord of the brevity of life (Psalm 39:4-5). Your Word says we are but a “passing breeze that does not return.” (Psalm 78:39) Help me to use every moment You have given me for Your glory. Continue to change me day by day. Keep me so busy about Your business that there is no time to give into my fleshly desires.

I pray for this generation of sleepwalkers. For both the believers and unbelievers. I pray for those who say they follow You with their lips but are squandering away the days with their actions. I pray for the non-believers who loiter and linger and are waiting for the last minute to get right with You. I pray You would wake them both from their sleep and remind them that dawn is about to break. Give them a new perspective on the preciousness of this life.

Thank You for Your patience and mercy with each one of us Lord. Please go before me this week, help me to clothe myself in Christ daily and to be about Your business. Help me to be awake and alert to the work You are doing in and through me. Please continue to put Your finishing touches on my life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

~Anita Marie