“Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present, or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people.” - A.W. Tozer
SCRIPTURE:
This is why it is said: "Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
DEVOTIONAL:
There is something disorienting about waking up. When your eyes adjust to the light, you see the room differently. Things you thought were in order turn out not to be. Things you assumed were fine turn out to be broken. Things you didn’t notice in the dark—because it was dark—become impossible to ignore in the light. This first week of the fast may seem like that.
You have been waking up, and some of what you’re seeing now you can’t unsee. That is not an accident - that is the work of Holy Spirit.
Paul’s image in Ephesians 5 is striking: “Wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead.” The spiritual condition of someone living unconsciously according to the world’s patterns is likened to both sleep and death.
Not because they are bad people, but because they are living well below their design. And the
awakening God offers is not just insight—it’s resurrection. Christ shining on you is not an interrogation; it’s rescue. It is the light coming not to expose for its own sake, but to illuminate the path out of what has been keeping you small.
The cost of waking up is that you now carry a responsibility you didn’t have before. You can no longer live entirely unconscious. And you can no longer pretend you don’t see what you see. Consider this: it’s also a gift, because the beginning of awareness is also the beginning of transformation. You cannot be changed in places you’ve refused to let God look. This is an axiom of the upside-down Kingdom: It’s God’s inspection that allows more intimacy. The fact that this week has been uncomfortable doesn’t mean something is wrong - it means something is right. Phase 1 is complete. You are awake.
Now stay there—and get ready for what comes next.
DAILY VERSE:
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. - Ephesians 5:14
PRAYER:
Father, I have been waking up this week, and some of what I’ve seen has unsettled me. I didn’t realize how deeply the world had shaped me. I didn’t realize how much I was carrying. I didn’t realize how wide the gap was between what I said I believed and how I actually lived. Thank you for the light—even when it’s uncomfortable. I don’t want to go back to sleep. Keep me awake, keep me honest, and lead me into what comes next. I’m ready. Amen.
FAST:
PHONE SILENT FAST — 6:00 PM until Monday morning
After church today, silence your phone—notifications off, screens down—from 6:00 PM until you wake up tomorrow. Let this Sunday evening be genuinely quiet. No texts to respond to, no feeds to check, no headlines to read. Phase 1 ends tonight. Let the silence be the space where what God has shown you this week settles deep. What He woke you up to deserves a quiet evening to land.