Have you ever woke up and thought you were late for work? I mean late late. Not, “I probably should get moving.” I mean the kind of late where your eyes open, you see the clock, and your whole body reacts before your brain has even had a chance to join the meeting. That happened to me one Saturday morning. I woke up like it was a regular workday and immediately thought I had overslept. I jumped up ready to move. My mind was already calculating everything at once. What time is it? How fast can I get dressed? What can I skip? Do I even have time to eat? Lord, please let there be no traffic. I was ready to go to work. Only one problem: it was Saturday.

I did not have to go anywhere. Once my brain finally caught up with the rest of my body, I realized there was no emergency. No supervisor was wondering where I was. Nobody was waiting on me. I had just startled myself out of perfectly good sleep for absolutely no reason. After my heart came back down from wherever it had gone, I probably could have laid back down. But that feeling stayed with me—the feeling of suddenly realizing, “I’m late.”

And spiritually, that thought carries a much different weight.

In Matthew 24:36–39 (NIV), Lord Jesus teaches that no one knows the day or the hour of His return:

Matthew 24:36–39 (NIV): “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”

People were living. They were eating, drinking, getting married, and continuing with everyday life right up until the flood came. Life looked normal. Schedules were still being made. Meals were still being eaten. Conversations were still happening. People were still making plans for tomorrow. And then suddenly, everything changed.

The problem was not that people were eating, drinking, getting married, going to work, raising families, or living ordinary life. Those things are not sinful. The danger was that life had become so normal that they were unaware of the seriousness of the moment they were living in.

And right here, I want to pause.

Before I go any further, I want to ask you for something. Give me five minutes of uninterrupted time. Not while scrolling. Not while half-reading. Not while trying to answer a text message, check a notification, watch television, or think about everything you need to do next. Just five minutes. Because what I am about to share is not something I want to say lightly, and it is not something I want you to receive casually.

This devotional comes from a personal encounter I had with the Holy Spirit. I want to be very clear about that because I also want to be very careful. I am not saying that I know when Lord Jesus is returning. I do not know the day. I do not know the hour. I am not setting a date, predicting a year, or claiming that the Heavenly Father revealed something to me that Lord Jesus Himself told us we would not know. Scripture is clear about that.

But while I was spending time with the Heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit impressed something deeply on my heart: we do not have as much time as we think.

I cannot tell you whether that means years, decades, or longer. That is not my message, and that is not my assignment. What I can tell you is what it did to me. It caused me to look differently at time. It caused me to think about my relationship with the Heavenly Father differently. It caused me to think about whether His Word is really truth in my life or merely something I agree with when it is convenient. It caused me to think about the people I love. It caused me to think about obedience, forgiveness, purpose, worship, and whether I am living with the awareness that every second I have is a gift.

We tend to live as though time is unlimited. We say, “I’ll deal with that later. I’ll forgive later. I’ll get serious about God later. I’ll pray more later. I’ll read His Word later. I’ll surrender that habit later. I’ll make things right later.” We have a remarkable ability to spend today while assuming tomorrow is already sitting in our account.

But tomorrow has never been promised to us.

That is not meant to frighten us. It is meant to wake us up.

Lord Jesus says in Matthew 24:44 (NIV), “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Notice that Jesus did not tell us to calculate the hour. He told us to be ready. There is a difference. Readiness produces faithfulness. Date-setting produces speculation. Readiness asks, “How should I live today?” Speculation asks, “How much time do I have before I need to change?”

And maybe that is the wrong question.

Maybe we should not be asking how much longer we can wait before getting serious with the Heavenly Father. Maybe we should be asking why we would want to wait at all.

I believe the Heavenly Father is going to pour out His power in mighty ways. I believe there will be a great awakening. I believe hearts will turn toward Him. I believe we will see the Heavenly Father move in ways that remind us that He is still God, His Word is still true, Lord Jesus still saves, and the Holy Spirit is still working in the lives of people.

But expectation should not make us casual. It should make us grateful.

Grateful for another second. Grateful for another minute. Grateful for another hour. Grateful for another day. Grateful for another year, if He allows it.

Every moment is another opportunity to love somebody, forgive somebody, encourage somebody, pray for somebody, tell somebody about Lord Jesus, obey something the Heavenly Father has been telling us, or simply sit quietly in His presence and say, “Father, thank You for giving me today.”

And we need His Word to become more than something we occasionally quote. The Word of God has to become truth in our lives. Not just truth when culture agrees with it. Not just truth when it makes us comfortable. Not just truth when the answer is what we wanted. If the Heavenly Father said it, we have to learn to trust it, submit to it, and build our lives upon it.

There is urgency in that, but there is also incredible hope.

Because if you are reading this, you are here. You have breath. You have this moment. And if something in your heart is saying, “I need to get closer to the Heavenly Father,” then do not turn that into fear. Turn it into response. Talk to Him. Come back to Him. Surrender what needs to be surrendered. Ask for forgiveness. Forgive who you need to forgive. Open His Word. Pray. Stop running from the very One who is calling you home.

This is not a message saying, “Be scared because time is running out.”

This is a message saying, “Thank God there is still time to respond.”

And ultimately, being ready is not about having every part of your life perfect. None of us does. Being ready is about knowing Who you belong to.

Lord Jesus said in John 14:6 (NIV), “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

That is where I want to leave this.

I do not know the day. I do not know the hour. I cannot tell you how much time remains.

But I know the Way.

And His name is Lord Jesus.

So if spiritually you have been sleeping, wake up. If you have wandered, come home. If you have been putting off surrender, stop assuming you have unlimited tomorrows. Not because the Heavenly Father wants you terrified of Him, but because He loves you enough to remind you that this life is precious, eternity is real, and Lord Jesus has already made the way back to Him.

When I woke up that Saturday morning thinking I was running late, I eventually realized I had plenty of time.

Spiritually, I do not want to make that assumption.

And neither should you.

Next Step

Reflect on how you have been treating the time the Heavenly Father has given you. Consider whether there is an area of your relationship with Him, an act of obedience, a conversation, forgiveness, or surrender that you have continually pushed into “later.”

Invite Lord Jesus to help you live ready rather than afraid. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you where you need to wake up, and thank the Heavenly Father for every second, minute, hour, day, and year He gives you.

We may not know how much time we have.

But we know Who we need to run to.