Sleep! sleep!!

I've been attending vigil in church for some days now. Earlier this morning around 3am, I struggled to write today's devotion, it was a big battle between the desire to write and the need to sleep. Sleep had a landslide victory, lol. Just before drifting into snooze land, I was still asking my 24hr friend what he wants us to know today and the reply came, SLEEP. I grinned and thought, 'Because I'm sleepy?'. Immediately I searched the scripture mentally and came up with the portion that pertains to sleep. I remembered Bro Eutychus the sleeper, then allowed myself to sleep. 

Opening the scripture now, I learnt some things in this very short incidence. First, the brethren were gathered in the upper chamber, which we can take as advanced or matured discipleship. Anyone who was present there wasn't one whom they were just trying to convert. Paul came to preach to them before he continued on his journey. Therefore, here we have an involved Christian. Secondly, Paul preached to them for long. His preaching was termed long. 

Do you have people you are spiritually custodian over? Are you unnecessarily laborious in preaching, exhorting, encouraging, reprimanding, even praising? This story tells us not to overdo things, as we may have an opposite effect of what we desired or intended. Thirdly, there were many lights in the upper chamber, ordinarily, with that place so lit up, Bro Eutychus ought not to have found it easy to sleep and then if at all, not such deep sleep as he was reported of. When we complain of people who are supposedly Christians, attending sound Bible believing churches and yet behaving contrary to expectations, we see now that not only is it not a first, but a possibility, and also a stage in a process being managed by the devil to achieve a sinister goal. Also, how did he manage to fall into such deep sleep and no one noticed? It is not enough to just keep banging the bible, theories and laws, are you watching the overall effect on your audience? 

Do you see the weary, tired, hungry, needy? Do you try to wake them, attend to their needs? Imagine the height this brother fell from! The third floor! There is no security in your position, advancement in the kingdom. Anyone can fall asleep, move to deep sleep, and then fall from a great height! Do you see the process? Do you see it doesn't start from the fall? Do you now know why it is only when Christians fall that people discover what they've been up to? Do you see that you are mainly responsible to keep awake in Christ? There is only so much spiritual authority can do to help you stay awake. The onus remains with you to actually keep 'waking'. Now we see that before physical death, is spiritual death. All the time he was sleeping, he was spiritually dead only that people did not know because he was still present in the physical. He took the tumble that led to his physical death. As it is with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God used Paul to bring him back to life. 

Again, we learn that as long as Rapture hasn't taken place and there is still life in a person, God can still restore that person back to 'Life'. I end my scripture discovery with this nursery rhyme for us
Are you sleeping
Are you sleeping
Sister Angelina
Sister Angelina
Morning bells are ringing
Morning bells are ringing
Ding ding dong
Ding ding dong. 
Even the rhyme does not ask 'Is she sleeping', it asks the sleeper the question. Keeping awake is your responsibility not that of your pastor.
Acts 20:7-12
Source: Oludunni