Are there any alarms in my life?

Some of us may have a job we have to be at tomorrow or somewhere we need to be by a certain time, and we will set our alarm to wake us up. Sometimes we wake up immediately, other times we hit the snooze button, or occasionally we may not hear the alarm at all. The only thing we can be sure of is that the alarm is meant to be a warning. A warning that says "Hey, it's time to wake up!". Think about your own life and be honest with yourself, are you in need of awakening?

At some point in our lives most of us will go through some type of hardship. It could be a divorce, an addiction,losing a job, or losing a friend. The bible tells us in the parable of the prodigal son of a young man that goes to his father and asks for his share of the inheritance early. The son then gathers all that he has, including his fortune, and heads to a distant land. He spends all of his money on wild living and eventually there is a famine in the land. He hires himself out to a farmer who asks him to feed his pigs. The son had no food and finds himself wishing he could eat the pigs food. Let's pause for a second in the story to clarify a few things. I believe it's safe to say that the son has hit rock bottom. He has lost everything he owned, and has reached a point where he is jealous of the meals of pigs. Jesus also tells us in this parable that the son is in a distant land. I think it's important to realize that the son probably hasn't had any contact whatsoever with his family. It's not like he could pick up the phone and call home to see how the crew is doing. But at this point in the story something extremely important happened. The son came to his senses. He heard the alarm.

The story goes on to say that the son returned home, not to an angry father who was bitter, but to a rejoicing daddy who welcomed his lost son with open arms. I took the time to tell that story in hopes you would notice a few things about the "alarm" the son finally heard. Think about your own alarm clock. Do you set your alarm as a soothing, calm noise? Or, do you make it the most annoying and excruciating sound you can find? The most effective alarms are always the hardest to hear, because they make you want to wake up faster. The same is true in our lives. The alarm goes off the loudest when we have hit rock bottom, and it's often too late to do anything about it. Divorce, addiction, job loss, and loss of friends are just a few of those "rock bottoms". Odds are, that somewhere along the way there were some alarms we didn't hear, and some we hit snooze on. This is the hardest part to hear for most people once they hear the alarm; Hearing the alarm does us no good at all if we don't take the action to get out of the bed.

God sometimes gives us these warnings or alarms in order for us to avoid the rock bottom. We go to church and the pastor begins to speak on a certain sin that we have been dealing with. Maybe your wife has been ignoring you, and you fill that void with pornography. The toxic nature of pornography has poisoned your mind to the point that you no longer find your wife attractive, so you become distant.This leads to a divorce, and a fallout with your children because they resent you and themselves, thinking that the whole thing is their fault. The alarms were there all along, but you ignored them, and it lead to a downward spiral into the deepest pit of your life. You see, the world tells us that we're too far gone for any help. My marriage is too broken, I've been an addict for too long, I'm too big of a sinner for God to love me. All of this stuff is absolute garbage. If God uses the alarm to do a work in your heart, it's time that our lives start matching up with what God is doing. Be honest with yourself about your situation. Don't hit the snooze button on the alarm anymore, make the move and get out of bed. God bless you all!