Sleeping Well These Days?

To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill.
 Selah

I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.  I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side.  –Psalm 3:4-6 

My wife tells me that I don’t get enough sleep.  You know something?  She’s right.  The problem is that I hate to stop all the productive activities I am involved in and go to bed.  I mean, I’m just lying there –  and I could be doing so much more!  Someone has said that sometimes the most productive thing we can do is get some rest, and I have to agree.  Every night I know that I have to bring everything I am doing to a close, get some sleep, and start fresh in the morning.  God is faithful and He will always empower us to accomplish what He has in store for us to do.  I guess maybe I am a little stubborn sometimes.  If I was to ask the Lord, “Lord, do I honestly have to sleep?” The answer would be, “Yes, Dan; now stop what you’re doing and go to bed!” I won’t bother trying to win that argument.

The good news about all of this is that when I do go to bed I sleep my six hours or so incredibly sound.  In recent years I have developed this wonderful ability to fall asleep in a matter of minutes and sometimes seconds.  Believe me when I say that I feel blessed to able to do so, for countless people suffer from insomnia, and I am most fortunate to not have that problem.  The reason that I sleep so soundly is that like David of the Old Testament, I lie down to sleep knowing that the Lord sustains me.  Our lives are in the Lord’s hands; that is the best place they could possibly be, for God is capable of upholding and sustaining us.

 What a blessed thought to drift off to sleep knowing that my life is in God’s hands.  What if my heart were to stop while I am asleep?  That was a thought that at one time might have kept me awake worrying at night.  But that was then.  Now, I drift off to sleep knowing that was I to breathe my last that I would awaken in the presence of the Lord.  I would get to see the face of Christ.  That, my friends, floods my soul with such peace that sleep is even deeper and more restful than ever.    

Like David, I can also go to sleep not fearful of any problems that await me when I arise in the morning, for the Lord is able to sustain me.  And that’s even if “thousands draw up against me on every side.”  That blessed peace is ours in Jesus Christ. 

Sleep well tonight.  Trust in the Lord to give us His peace.