A good night’s sleep - Hope 103.2

A good night’s sleep

By David ReayTuesday 3 Nov 2015LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes

Transcript:

Read Psalm 127:1-2

1          Unless the Lord builds the house,
                the builders labour in vain.
            Unless the Lord watches over the city,
                the guards stand watch in vain.
2          In vain you rise early
                and stay up late,
            toiling for food to eat—
                for he grants sleep to those he loves. (NIV)

Sleep is a sort of surrender. Whatever plans you are making, whatever delights you are enjoying, whatever anxieties are besetting you, sleep is a way of setting them aside. For a time at least you give up your apparent right to manage your life. For a time you do not run your own life.

As such, sleep is a gift from God, a reminder that it is his world and not our own. This Psalm reminds us that we need not lie awake out of fear that things will spin out of control if we take a nap. It is the Lord who keeps things going. We do play our part, but it is always under his overall control.

And sleep is also a sort of rehearsal for our final surrender. One day we will give ourselves over to our last sleep and trust that the one who rules our world will awaken us and bring us into a new life of eternal light.

Those of us who find it hard to trust and surrender may also find it hard to sleep. We need to remind ourselves that only God has the whole world in his hands. He bids us work with him while we wake, but to trust in him as we sleep.

Blessings
David Reay