Being Sleepless

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

BEING SLEEPLESS

Eph 6:10-18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

NIV

The last thing is to be sleepless, or as this translation puts it, be alert. However, the Greek word used here means to be sleepless, as well as being persistent in our supplications, or petitions for all the holy ones of God. We need to explore this being sleepless so as to gain a fuller understanding of what is meant by with this in mind, be alert. We would think we should always have the fact that God has dressed us in his armor, but perhaps we should keep in mind that our battle is not about flesh and blood, but against the schemes of the devils, against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. If we get caught up in living in the rut of Christianity, we could be lulled to sleep. We wonder if we could get too concerned about the human aspect of Christianity, that is doing all the right things, or trying to live under some set of rules and regulations basing our faith on works or service, our position in the body or how much we know about scripture, or our worldly duties and recreations. From what we understand here is that our Christian walk is a spiritual battle, that is we are always under attack from the enemy of our souls. If we get too busy with our works of service and trying to live under some version of the law, we might forget about this battle and be found sleeping in regard to the battle we are in and that we have all the armor of God available, but we must put it on, so we can stand our ground, take our stand, and after everything, stand firm. That is quite different than sleeping, for this would be living sleepless, always on high alert against all attempts made against us by all the forces of evil but in this world and in the heavenly or spiritual realms. Of course, we still have to live out our daily lives and do all those things both in the body of Christ and in our physical world, but while we do all that, we must not forget to put on all the armor of God and keep it on at all times, knowing the battle we face. Let us always be sleepless.