DEVOTIONAL

July 2007 Cup of Joy Devotional

"I CAN’T KEEP MY EYES OPEN!"

Now Peter and his companions had been overcome with sleep; but when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men standing with Him. Luke 9:32

This summer we had our yearly family vacation at the beach. With 13 people (mostly kids) it is hard to go out to a movie so we often just stay in and watch a movie together. The biggest hurdles are getting the kids to bed and having everyone agree on what movie to watch. I never really care – my greatest concern is the popcorn!

One night this summer, we decided to watch the movie “Breach”. It is based on a true story and everyone had heard it was great. After the popcorn had been popped, the ice cream served and our pajamas were on, we began the movie. The next thing I knew, everyone was talking about different aspects of the movie and I realized that I slept through the entire thing! The next day they continued to discuss the movie and I could not even take part in the conversation! That evening, once again, popcorn popped, ice cream served and pajamas on we decided to watch the “behind the scenes” of “Breach” instead of a new movie. No laying down for me… I was determined to stay awake so that I could participate in all the fun discussions afterwards (I guess I think it is a sin if I can’t put my two cents into the discussion). The DVD started and the next thing I knew, the lights were coming on around me and my family was discussing the movie, which I had YET to see. My kids just looked at me and said “mom, go to bed” and once again I felt terribly left out!

Feeling left out of family time is one thing – but missing out on what Jesus has for me is another thing!

Read Luke 9:28-32. In this scripture passage, Jesus has invited Peter, James and John to go with Him to pray. Jesus proceeds to pray and they sleep. I wonder if they woke up intending to “hush” whoever was talking and disturbing their sleep only to find Jesus talking to Elijah and Moses! Major heroes of the faith for them! It would be like me sleeping while Jesus talked to Peter and Paul – I can’t imagine!

Yet, every day, I have the opportunity to sit before my Heavenly Father and chat with Him and I have to fight the feeling of being to tired. Have you ever said, “I start praying and I find myself going to sleep or I start reading scripture and I doze off”? What if Peter had slept through Jesus’ meeting with Moses and Elijah? He would have missed an amazing opportunity to see God’s glory and would have missed Moses and Elijah! Can you comprehend Jesus telling His disciples later that day that they had missed seeing Moses and Elijah because they were sleeping?!  And even more importantly that they had missed seeing God’s Glory…

You might want to excuse the disciples and their fatigue – they had just eaten fish and bread from the miracle Jesus had performed earlier that day – they just couldn’t keep their eyes open. You know, there are some things you just don’t want to miss! We can laugh at the disciples and wonder how they could possibly sleep in the presence of Jesus. Yet, we bow our heads to begin a conversation with our Jesus and find ourselves going to sleep right after “now I lay me down to sleep”. Prayer is our gift of communication and our Savior gave it to us through the cross. The cross paid for our sins so that we would not have a barrier between us and our Heavenly Father. We are able to hear from Him and speak freely to Him. Praise God!

Do you need to hear from God today? Would you like to see His Glory? He has invited us to come to Him and to know His Word. Will you accept His invitation? I guarantee you --- He is NOT sleeping!

Love ya,
Dot