The sleep of death

Justin Rizzo - Worship Leader
Follow Justin on Twitter - justinrizzoihop
Justin grew up in Lockport, New York and moved to IHOP in January 2004 where he completed the onething internship. His desire is to minister in the house of the Lord by singing and proclaiming the Word of God and to see thousands impacted with the gospel. 
 

“Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death” (Ps. 13:3)

Right now you are awake. Your using your eyes to read each letter that I wrote which your brain is automatically turning into words as your brain is instantly recalling words from the thousands stored up in the word bank of your brain. You’re following the flow of my writing as I’m using these words to form sentences, and sentences to form paragraphs of completed thoughts.

But do you know that even as you’re reading this and your externally senses are awake it’s still very possible for you to be asleep in the place that it matters most? Your heart.

Many times I can go days, weeks and even months before I realize that I’m beginning to fall asleep on the inside. When I think of slumber I don’t think necessarily of blatant sin that’s making me a little less spiritual. But rather I think of having a lack of vibrancy on my spirit when there’s no spring in my “spiritual step” of my day to day walk with the Lord.  

For me it’s so easy to study theology, bible facts, and even read a bunch of bible verses yet still not take the time to get it into my heart. Reading the bible and studying theology is vital and it’s something we must do and I really enjoy doing that. But in the midst of my bible study and pursuit of theology I cannot separate it from the most important part of my relationship with the Lord – the intimate friendship.

I want the scriptures to lead me into meditation upon Jesus. When I say meditation on Jesus, that’s something totally different than the study of Jesus. Today I am freshly returning to the commitment to commune with Jesus, to talk to Him, and not just know things about Him. As the years go by in my relationship with the Lord I’m finding that this is something I have to constantly re-align and I think that’s fairly normal. I invite you today to ask the Holy Spirit to align your heart into a fresh, deep relationship with the man Christ Jesus.

© 2011 Justin Rizzo