I do not have the words to describe how amazingly appropriate and timely today’s devotional was. Just minutes before, I had written in my journal a cool motivational saying that had popped into my head: Get up, get going, and get something done.

Then I opened up Oswald Chambers’s book, UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST. His key verse for today was “Arise from the dead…”  Ephesians 5:14. Just a few sentences into today’s reading, he writes, “…someone may say to you, ’Get up and get going!’”

A coincidence? No. I call it an “Aha moment from God!”

God is telling me to get out of bed and begin living again. God will not lift me out of bed, but I mus initiate the process. God’s power will be made evident to me AFTER I put my feet on the floor.

Matthew 12 tells a story about a man with a withered hand. Jesus didn’t say to him, “Your hand is healed.” He told him, “Stretch out your hand.”

In John 5, a lame man told Jesus he wanted to be healed. Jesus didn’t reach down with His hand to him, but instead, He told him to “Take up his bedroll and walk.”

That man had no way of knowing if his legs would work, but he would not know unless he took some initiative, like getting up! No, this man who had not walked in 38 years had to do it on his own. Jesus wanted him to realize that…

…to do the very thing that Jesus had told him he could do.

The second principle Chambers addresses is the death of a dream. A dream or aspiration (a hope or ambition of achieving something) that we had earlier in our life but we let it die.

Through God-ordained circumstances, He continually reminds me of the dream He placed in my heart. Somewhere during my journey, the passion and vision I once had were kindled anew within my soul. My hope is renewed, and my dream once again seems plausible. Why? Because I am experiencing the power of God, which is compelling me to “Arise from the dead…”

Do I want to be healed?

Do I want to see my dream come to fruition? 

Then I must “Arise from MY BED”  by taking it upon myself to put my feet on the floor willing myself to

get up … get going … get something done!

Do YOU want to be healed? 

“Arise from the dead”  by beginning to do things you already know you should be doing.

What is YOUR dream?

“Arise from the dead”  by reigniting and empowering that dream you have held at bay for far too long.