I do not particularly care for the 1:39am wake up call. OK so I’m not really sure when I woke up but I finally gave up pretending to be asleep at 1:39am when I checked my email. I decided not to respond to an email at that time. After some prayer for others, I asked God for a bit of rest before I had to get up. He obliged until the 3am hour and I get up at 4. This is the second night. The third night usually brings good sleep then we repeat the cycle.
That night as I was praying before sleep, I thought about Jesus talking to the disciples. Jesus says something like “You couldn’t stay awake one hour and pray! The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” I asked that my flesh not be weak when I needed to pray. I tend to find myself in that same boat – so exhausted that sleep is instantaneous. I thought maybe He woke me up to see if the spirit was willing. I probably should have prayed before checking my email huh? *sigh*
That morning I read Luke 17.
So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, ‘We are slaves undeserving of special praise; we have only done what was our duty.’ –Luke 17:10
That verse was highlighted in my Bible. I think it was highlighted. I’m sure we could teach on this verse for a long time. (1) Are we doing what we have been commanded? That’s probably a sermon in and of itself. (2) We are slaves. Another good one. (3) Undeserving of special praise. As we seek glory for ourselves and not for the God who created the heavens and the earth. (4) And we have only done what was our duty. I’m not even a preacher so I imagine a preacher might be able to pull a few more sermons out of that verse.
Only done what was our duty…I say we get to work on that…