Sleep is an Act of Faith

“I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.”(Psalm 3:5-6)



I thank God that insomnia (inability to sleep) is not one of my weaknesses. I have an uncle who, regardless of what time he goes to bed, will be up around 03:00 hours. Sleep completely disappears, and no matter how hard he tries, he cannot fall asleep again. I have never come across anyone who hates sleep. Normally, all of us sleep about a third of our lives. The need for sleep is part of the way that God hardwired us. Isn’t it interesting that the One in whose image we have been created, made us with the ability and urge to sleep when He himself neither slumbers nor sleeps? (Psalm 121:4). 

Sleep is not only a gift of God, (Psalm 127:2) but also an act of faith. Psalm 3 is a psalm of David when he fled from Absalom. This was a time of great distress and danger on every side. What David was facing was overwhelming enough to cause him fear and anxiety and deprive him of sleep. But David did what all of us should do when fear and anxiety overwhelm us – he “cried out to the LORD.” (Psalm 3:4). And did God answer his prayer? Yes, He did. With enemies all around him, David manages to fall asleep (3:5). That he was able to rest and sleep in the face of overwhelming danger was an act of faith. 

Peaceful sleep is the opposite of fearful restlessness, sleeplessness, and anxiety. When we trust God, He will send us His divine gift of sleep. In the face of the threat of the COVID-19, do you fail to sleep because of excessive worry and fear? Turn your fear and worry over to God, and lay down to sleep confident that the Lord will sustain you. George Horne (1730-1792), an English churchman and vice-chancellor of Oxford University beautifully wrote: 
Happy is the Christian, who having nightly with this verse, committed himself to his bed as to his grave, shall at last, with the same words, resign himself to his grave as to his bed, from which he expects in due time to arise, and sing a morning hymn with the children of the resurrection. 

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