The Alarms Were Sounding!

Last night, we were sitting in our home, when 'beep' and then another 'beep' sounded, followed by another. My sweet husband jumped up and said a battery is going dead in an alarm. He proceeded to stand guard in the hallway to 'listen' for the culprit. 'Beep'...run to the dining room. 'Beep' ..there it is! It is the carbon monoxide alarm. He calmly tells me it is the battery, no need to be alarmed. (I hear, don't believe) He changed the battery, then 'beep'!!! What? He jumps up! Unbelievable, but it is an alarm in the hallway! Strange things happen in our home! He changes that battery. Later, I hesitantly go to bed. When awakening at 1:30 AM, my first thoughts..I am ALIVE! No more beeping, peaceful and quiet in the house and I am ALIVE!
Is this the way it is in heaven? When our relationship with Jesus is not what it should be and 'our battery' is going dead, does an 'alarm' go off in heaven? Probably not, but He knows! When does 'our' alarm go off? You know, I think when Jesus left us to return to heaven, He sent our alarm! He sent the Holy Spirit to live inside us, to set off the sound, to send the SOS, to let our hearts be aware there is something wrong. "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever" John 14:16
What do we do? Do we always listen to the alarm? Sorry to say 'no', we don't always listen. Therefore, the 'beeps' tend to get quieter and quieter as we move away from Christ. It is sad how we can turn our hearts toward the things we want and not what Christ wants, not paying any attention to the alarm that He is transmitting to us. 
How do we 'renew' the alarm? First prayers of forgiveness....stand in the hallway listening to find the culprit that is sounding the alarm! Second take out the bad battery.......get rid of what is causing the separation and sin that is in our life. Third read His Word........get a good battery out and get it ready to use.  Fourth...you guessed it....fill the the space by putting in the good battery....filling ourselves with His Presence.  
Now, I must stop here and tell you.  The first time Denny put in the new battery, he must have put it in backwards with the positive and negatives, because it once again starting beeping. This too can happen to Christians, we can go to church, read His word and seemingly do all the right things, but if we aren't in a right relationship with Jesus,  don't have God in our life and heart the way He is supposed to be, then something is still wrong. The alarm will still sound. This is where we try to fool ourselves into thinking 'we are ok, we put in the battery!'
Sometimes we need to trust and lean on each other to make sure our batteries are in correctly. It is scary, but sometimes others see or hear our alarms before we do! They can see our lives and realize an alarm is going off and we are doing nothing about it. We need to pray for each other, encourage each other to get the 'battery' in correctly!

" Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." 1 Thess 5:11

Thank you Father for our 'alarms' and that You love us enough to keep us close to You. 

When we trust in Jesus in all things, we can know we can rest peacefully in Him and be ALIVE in Him!

Blessings,
gs