SOBRIETY

Since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.   I Thess. 5:8

People who stay up half the night but then have to work all day pay a price.  They walk around in a stupor.  Their awareness is dulled; their reflexes are slow.  What could endanger them fails to catch their attention because they struggle just to stay awake.  They give into things they otherwise wouldn’t because of fatigue.  They are careless with their tongue.  They are also pale.  Their pallor gives their nighttime activities away.

I am not a child of the night, but of the day.  My heart is not infected with activities that are more in sync with the kingdom of darkness than with God’s kingdom.  The breastplate covers the most vulnerable part of my life, my heart.  Faith and love keep me sober, causing me to assess how I spend my time, how I use my mind, what I allow to affect my heart.  Something that is not palatable to Jesus is not palatable to me.  If I am not careful to guard what is precious, I lose my spiritual edge.  Being sober, seeing clearly as one does in broad daylight, defines me.

More than absolutely anything, I want to walk as ‘one of the day’.   I don’t want to be deceived by the many voices who would cause me to step foot out of God’s circle of light.  Jesus summed it up Himself in Luke 21:34  Be on your guard. Don’t let the sharp edge of your expectations get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise, spring on you suddenly like a trap, for it’s going to come on everyone. So, whatever you do, don’t go to sleep at the switch. Pray constantly that you will have the strength and wits to make it through everything that’s coming and end up on your feet before the Son of Man.”  (The Message)

Today is mine to live only once.  That is sobering!  Wisdom is assessing not only what is evil but what is most prudent.  Doing only what my Father leads me to do keeps me walking as a daughter of the day.  Sobriety affords me a lifestyle where flashes of discernment are quick and accurate, making my steps sure.

I am serious and committed, God.  Amen