Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques, 
Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous? 
Sonnez les matines! Sonnez les matines! 
Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong. 

Dormez-vous? Are you sleeping? Are you awake? Are you aware?

Sleeping at the wrong time is not good, and may cause you to miss out on what God has planned for you. Consider the parable of the ten virgins. All ten were waiting for the Bridegroom. While the Bridegroom tarried they all slept. At midnight the cry went out, “Behold, the Bridegroom comes! Go out to meet Him!” (Matthew 25:6). Five of the virgins were not ready to meet the Bridegroom for their lamps were out of oil. When they finally were ready, it was too late. The door to the marriage banquet was shut, and they were left outside.

The LORD shared this parable with His disciples with this warning: “Watch (stay awake), therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man comes” (Matthew 25:13).

Dormez-vous? Are you sleeping?

When Jesus came to the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night of His betrayal, He said to His disciples: “Pray, that you enter not into temptation” (Luke 22:40). Upon rising from intense prayer, Jesus went to where His disciples were assembled and “found them sleeping” (v. 45). He “said unto them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray lest you enter into temptation;” (v. 46). At the critical time of intense intercessions, groanings, and sweating great drops of blood, the disciples slept.

Dormez-vous? Are you sleeping?

Frère, Brother, are you sleeping? It is time to ring the bells and call the people to the matines, the hour of prayer. It is time to be awake, to be aware of what is going on around you.

“And, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Romans 13:11). “Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:6). “Wherefore, He sayeth, ‘Awake you who sleep; arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light” (Ephesians 5:13).

Dormez-vous? Frère! Brother, wake up! The LORD is coming! “The night is far spent, the Day of the LORD is at hand”! (Romans 13:12a). Be ready, be sober, be awake, be vigilant, report for duty. Ring the bells, blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm! Wake up!