The Snooze Button

Bible Reading: Romans 13:11-14

Grant stirred and fumbled for the snooze button on the alarm clock. As soon as the noisy alarm stopped, he burrowed deeper under the covers. A few minutes later, the beeping sound of the alarm roused him again. Once more, he hit the snooze button and nestled back in his bed. Before the alarm could sound a third time, his mother was at his door. “Get up right now, Grant! You’ll have to hurry or you’ll miss your bus.”

“Oh!” Grant sat up quickly, then stumbled from his bed. He hurried to get ready and ran outside just in time to catch the bus.

That evening, Grant informed his parents that he needed a new alarm clock. “My alarm didn’t go off this morning, and I almost missed my bus.”

Mom laughed. “It went off all right.”

“Are you sure?” asked Grant. “I didn’t hear it.”

“I’m sure,” said Mom. “I heard it, and you actually did too. But you didn’t wake up fully, so you just don’t remember. I finally went in and woke you up myself because you kept hitting the snooze button and going back to sleep.”

“That sounds a lot like the way Christians sometimes live,” said Dad, picking up his Bible.

Grant frowned. “You think Christians hit the snooze buttons on their alarm clocks more than other people do?”

Dad grinned at Grant’s puzzled look. “Well, the book of Romans tells us that Christians need to wake up,” he said. “Why don’t you read it for us?” Dad handed the Bible to Grant and pointed to some verses.

When Grant finished reading, Dad said, “God warns that our time on earth is getting shorter and shorter, so we’d better wake up and live the way people who trust in Jesus should live. Ignoring God’s warning is like hitting the snooze button, and we fail to put the short time we have left to good use.”

Mom nodded. “Someday, it will be too late for those who don’t know Jesus to trust in Him and be saved. As Christians, we need to put sinful, selfish ways behind us and live in a way that points others to Jesus, who freed us from sin. We need to wake up and embrace the new life He’s given us.”

-Hazel W. Marett

How About You?

Have you hit the snooze button in your Christian life? Are you living to please yourself instead of God? Time is passing quickly, and people need to know about Jesus now. Wake up and start living like the person He’s made you to be—one who points others to His love, patience, and forgiveness. Let others see Jesus in you—in the way you talk, act, and respond to the things that happen each day.

Today’s Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 15:34 (NKJV) Awake to righteousness, and do not sin.

Today’s Key Thought:

Wake up and live for Jesus