There’s
a lady I recently followed on Instagram that quite often posts, “Thank God for
bed time” before she goes to bed in the evening. At first I didn’t put much
thought to it. In my I head I was thinking this is her way of saying good night
to her followers. It then dawned on me that we take sleep so lightly. Should we?
Sleeping
is an obvious time of rest during the night as we recover our energy to take on
the next day. We all need to sleep, and
we spend a fair proportion of our lives doing just that (or, for some of us,
trying to do just that). But many of us struggle to balance our need for sleep
with the other demands and pleasures of our lives.
What’s
more, when we read the Bible we discover that God actually cares about our
sleep and has something to say about it. The Bible mentions trusting in
God as an assurance of such peaceful resting.
God
does not expect us to be super-human. He expects us to work hard, and he graciously
gives us responsibilities to meet (and a measure of energy to allow us to meet them).
But our limitations are not a bug or some design flaw to be overcome with commitment
and Red Bull. They are a God-given gift. Remember, God could just as easily
have designed us to function without sleep. He could have created us to have
fixed energy levels, or with some other ways of being refreshed. But he chose
sleep. He chose to knock us out cold for a third of each day. And he didn’t do
it to annoy us. He did it to teach us. He did it to teach us that his work, not
our work, is decisive. But more than that, he did it because he loves us.
These verses should remind us that sleep is a gift from God;
PSALM
3:5- I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me
PSALM
4:8- In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make
me dwell in safety.
PSALM
127:2- It is a waste of time to get up early and stay up late, trying to make a
living. The Lord provides for those he loves, even while they are sleeping.
We
need God’s help every single day. We literally can not do a thing without him. And
God is able to give us the help that we need—whether we realize it or
not—because he never slumbers or sleeps (Psalm 121: 3-4). God is awake and
ready to help whenever we need him. If we are troubled by worries preventing us
from sleeping, we can cast our anxieties upon the love and sovereignty of God to ease such concerns.
Every day, God gives us the gift of
being able to climb into bed and leave everything in his hands. Sleep is
incredibly humbling—and therefore incredibly glorifying to the God who never
sleeps (Geoff Robson).
Darling,
life is short. You should get some sleep.
Signed,
Kaps 💓
