Now is the time for you to get serious about your relationship with the Lord. Here are three critical areas that call for your immediate attention.

Now is the time for waking from the night of sensual revelry. Romans 13:11-13 reads, "And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy." Maybe you have heard the greeting, "Wakey-wakey!" According to the "Collins English Dictionary," "wakey-wakey" is "used for telling someone that they should wake up or should pay attention." It is high time to pay attention to your conduct as a Christian.

Now is the time for worshipping in the light of spiritual reality. John 4:21-24 reads, "Jesus said to [the Samaritan woman at the well], 'Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.'" Thomas Constable shares, "The combination 'spirit and truth' points to the need for complete sincerity and complete reality in our approach to God." He also explains, "in this context Jesus was apparently contrasting integrity and reality in worship with the externalism and hypocrisy that marked so much worship in His day."

Now is the time for witnessing with the might of scriptural reasoning. Isaiah 1:18 reads, "'Come now, and let us reason together,' Says the Lord, 'Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.'" Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6:1-2, "We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: 'In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.' Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." When Paul preached Christ in Thessalonica, he "reasoned with them from the Scriptures" (Acts 17:2). This was his pattern of witnessing. May it be said of you as it was of Apollos, that you are "mighty in the Scriptures" (Acts 18:24) and that you are capable of "showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ" (Acts 18:28). Make certain you really know Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.

Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey, of Robertsdale, is the author of "Don't Miss the Revival! Messages for Revival and Spiritual Awakening from Isaiah.