For several years now I have worn an Apple watch.  I am a major fan!  My watch can show me my emails, my texts, my calls, and my calendar.  It was my Apple watch that helped my cardiologist to see that I had been experiencing Afib for months before coming to see him.  My watch kept a record of my EKGs and recorded in bright yellow the times I experienced Afib.   I could go on and on.  As I said, I am a fan of my Apple watch.

Apple watches offer a feature that I use every day.  It allows me to set three goals and these goals show up as circles to be closed.  Mine is set up to show calories in red, exercise minutes in green, and stand hours in blue.  I am so happy when the red and green circles are completely closed!  Hallelujah, I have reached my goal for calories to be burned and exercise is done for the day!  But that blue circle – that blue circle is much harder to close.   Some days I would like to erase it from my watch!

The blue circle requires that I stand up and move around each hour.   My goal is to stand up and move each hour for at least twelve hours per day, and if I don’t stand and move around, I cannot close the circle by the end of the day.  In fact, if an hour is coming to a close and I have not moved, my watch buzzes my arm and gives me a message, “Time to Stand.”  Let me say that “Time to Stand” is not always a welcome message to me.  I would rather stay in my comfortable position and not be challenged.

Beloved people of God, we are in a period where Heaven is buzzing us – “Time to Stand.”    The Bible says, “…When the day of evil comes…stand your ground, and after you have done everything… stand. Stand firm then… Ephesians 6:13-14

I was a bit reluctant to write this blog because it is much easier to stay in my comfortable position.  It is heartbreaking to watch our nation imploding morally and spiritually. Brothers and sisters, I’m here to tell you today, “Time to Stand.”   It is time to take a stand by applying our Biblical values to all we say, do, think, and live.

Eventually, we will all come to moments when everyone else is doing one thing, but God has called us to do something different. To choose purity can impact our dating lives. To choose integrity can affect our move up the career ladder.   To choose God can impact our friendships. 

The Bible is full of stories of people who made the choice to stand.  Daniel chose to pray to his God and be thrown into a den of lions. Three Hebrew children chose to stand for God and be thrown into a fiery furnace.  The early disciples chose to preach the truth even though they would be beaten for doing so.

We are in an hour where we must choose to stand our ground against the enemy like never before. The Bible has much to say about standing. We are exhorted to stand still, to stand fast, to stand fast in faith, to stand fast in the Lord; and, then after we have done all that, just stand.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.  Our spiritual watches are buzzing us, “Time to Stand.”