Are You Spiritually Asleep?

• By candidasullivan
• August 17, 2026
• No Comments

Why do we try to control others, but live as if we have no control over ourselves?

The enemy loves to keep us focused on everyone but ourselves. If I’m consumed with what someone else needs to change, I can conveniently avoid asking God what He wants to change in me.

That’s why we live in frustration a lot of the time. We are zoomed in on someone else, while ignoring ourselves. This can lead to spiritual sleep.

Spiritual sleep can look like:

Procrastinating obedience. We don’t tell God no; we decide to do it later. Then, every time we start to do it, the enemy rushes in with another layer of procrastination. He can give us a really good argument for delay. “Someday” can become one of the enemy’s favorite hiding places. It allows us to feel like we intend to obey while keeping us from obeying today.

If he can get us to live distracted, we won’t be a threat to him. So he introduces drama to get our attention. Nothing distracts us like chaos. It causes us to focus on other things instead of the Lord. 

When conviction comes on us, he tries to get us to ignore it. Do it another time, he whispers. It’s too hard for you. You don’t know how to do it. Anything to keep us from following the Lord. 

After a while, we lose our zeal for the Lord. That’s when we start going through the motions. We read our Bibles out of obligation, not desire. We go to church, but our minds are somewhere else. Our prayers become hurried and dry. 

In the lukewarm state, we become numb. Therefore, we learn to get through our days rather than live them. 

Spiritual sleep doesn’t always look like rebellion. Sometimes it looks like distraction.

We still believe in God.
We still read our Bible.
We still pray.
We still intend to obey.

We’re just not fully awake.

We’re living on autopilot while continually telling God, “I’ll do it someday.”

Romans 13:12 KJV

¹² The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

We have to decide to change. To cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. To wake up out of our spiritual sleep. 

Several weeks ago, I decided to stop consuming social media. I wanted to give myself a break and see how it made me feel. But I didn’t just stop something; I also started something. I replaced my social media time with reading more and journaling. Honestly, it has been the best thing for me. 

I shut off the noise of the outside world, so I could hear what is happening inside of me. I can’t even explain how peaceful my mind and soul feel. 

Reading about the devastation happening in the world and hearing others’ complaints made me feel bad. It evoked fear in me. Every time someone posted about an accident, my mind raced to the worst-case scenario. Daily exposure trained my mind to look for the bad and to live in fear. 

Now, I want to train my mind to live in love and trust. I want to read about God’s promises. And slow down enough to appreciate the beauty in nature and my life. I don’t want to look up from my phone one day and realize my life is over. And I never learned how to live. 

So I’m learning to cast off the things that pull me toward darkness and put on the things that nourish my soul.

I’m learning that I can’t control everyone around me, but I can choose what gets my attention. I can choose what I feed my mind. I can choose whether I obey God today or someday.

I can wake up.

Sweet friend, maybe that’s the question for us today: What do we need to cast off so we can become fully awake to the life God is calling us to live?