Exposed

“Father, thank you for allowing me the privilege to come before you, a holy God, with my petitions. Thank you flooor bu–nny egg bake – *snore* you’re so good and beautiful catterpi-created you all-er” … Aaaand I’m waking up the next day.

Those nights I’m like “no sleep formed against me shall prosper” *getting into bed, “I will pray!” Are the very nights that sleep overpowers and conquers me so bad I wake up the next morning saying “amen” thinking I just finished praying.

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”…”Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” – Isaiah 6:1-5

It’s days like these that cause me to question whether I really understand what is meant by God is holy. Isaiah is there crying woe is me; creatures say holy holy holy, day and night; the Seraphim covered his feet and face; and there is me, falling asleep.

Naturally I tell a friend or someone about what happened because I feel bad, and I get things like, at least you slept in prayer, some people don’t pray. But Aha! That’s the problem. “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips”, I measure myself against the wrong scale.

When you fail a test at school,you don’t look for the person with the highest mark to boast about your failure because it doesn’t feel nice to be exposed on things you’ve failed to accomplish. But that’s exactly what we need  in our lives, to be exposed to God’s holiness, perfection, that we may see just how dismally we fail.

 Compared to other people we may seem alright, in fact we may even earn titles, ‘the girl with the prayer book’, ‘the guy who hides verses in his pockets’, but compared to God, sha, a drop of water in the ocean, we just don’t compare.

So what’s the fuss about sleeping while praying? It shows a lack of reverence, respect or appreciation. We sleep because we’re tired, we normally get tired after hours of being awake. I know that by 9pm my mind starts shutting down, if I try and read anything, I will fall asleep. The disciples fell asleep when they were supposed to be praying as well (Matthew 26:41-43), they were tired shem, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”.

I can’t imagine someone getting to work to sleep, besides getting fired, people would ask why they don’t sleep enough at home. We’re taught to take our jobs and schooling seriously, we should take the LORD even more seriously. Instead of choosing times when we know we’re incapable of praying or reading God’s word, rather choose times where you are fully alert if you decide to wake up in the morning and not tired if you decide to do it in the evening.

“But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed” – 2 Corinthians 13:7

We have great need to be in prayer, we’re always ready to sin and without God’s word we could never know what He finds as sin, and we could lead ourselves blindly thinking we are going in the right path simply because we are using the wrong measuring scale.

“…Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” – Romans 7:7

Praise the LORD for His word, which teaches us and prepares us for all that we need to glorify Him and grow in His grace through His son Jesus Christ. Even though it’s tough to fight against our own flesh, yield to Christ and cry out to Him, He will strengthen you.