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Awake, O Zion!
God doesn’t want to just wake individuals; he wants to wake the church.
The church is God’s messenger to a storm-tossed world. How can the church sleep while the world is agonizing with such colossal pressures? How can she drift while people’s hearts are failing on every side? How can the church, God’s prophetic voice to the nations, become so purposeless and fall asleep?
A loss of identity
When the church forgets her calling, when she turns her back on her obligation to the lost, she suffers a total loss of identity. Bake sales and bazaars are hardly the mark of a prophetic people who bring God’s answers into the turmoil of our generation!
Christians who rejoice only in inward-looking ministry are hardly more relevant. God wants to shake us out of our complacency. We must wake to our identity and our calling. We must be restored to a true fear of the Lord.
Hello, my name is Jonah, and I fear the Lord
As soon as Jonah admitted his identity and acknowledged he feared God, it had a startling effect on the sailors. They were terrified and began to cry out to God and offer him sacrifices (Jonah 1:9–10, 16).
When the wayward church wakes up to its true identity and declares they fear God, people begin to pray and seek him for themselves. This is the real distinction between organized evangelism and revival. Revival begins when God’s people genuinely reaffirm their fear of the Lord and reclaim a right relationship with him.
Chosen for God’s purposes
In the face of Jonah’s disobedience, God would have been justified in saying, “Jonah has deserted his post and cannot be trusted. I’ll just let him go. Amos is much more reliable. Amos, you go instead!”
But God had chosen Jonah. Having started a great work in this wayward prophet, God was committed to completing it. He loved Jonah and stood by him, just as he’d stood by Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Peter, and others when they drifted from his plans. God’s faithfulness to backsliders is amazing. His covenant love extends beyond our wildest dreams.
When the wayward church wakes up to its true identity and declares they fear God, people begin to pray and seek him for themselves.
God’s commitment also extends to the church. He sees the church’s faults and failings, but he will never abandon it. Do you think God will say, “I’ve had about as much as I can take from the church! I think I’ll scrap it and look somewhere else for support. Maybe I’ll ask a couple of million angels to help me out. They’d be much more reliable.”? No, God chose the church, and he’ll complete his work through the church.
Mercy, not destruction
God was sickened by the wickedness of Nineveh. The people’s sin angered him. He could have destroyed the city, but he longed to show compassion, to be merciful, to offer the Ninevites the opportunity to repent.
Today, God wants you to share his anguish. “Look at these huge cities; their wickedness has come up before me, and I’m angry at their sin, but I love the people and long to show them compassion and mercy. Take the gospel to them. I want to display my love and power to give them the opportunity to repent.”
Wake up
Are you personally obeying God in this great commission, or have you fallen asleep?
God wants you to not only know the great work he’s planning for the nations, but to be involved. Don’t run in the wrong direction, spend your resources on the wrong things, and fall asleep to the world’s need as though it does not affect you. God will send the storm and shake you until you get back on course, until you are caught up with him in his worldwide purpose, until you get up on your feet, acknowledge your waywardness and cry out, “Lord, I’m coming back! I’m ready to follow your command.”