WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING
"It is useless to get up early and stay up late in order to earn a living. God takes care of His own, even while they sleep" Psalm 127:2, CSB
I love the way this particular version of the Bible phrases this verse. "God takes care of His own, EVEN while they sleep."
Have you ever felt like too many activities and responsibilities have piled up in your life and are causing a traffic jam? When that happens to me it affects my attitude and my demeanor. I get touchy and snappy. Have you ever been there?
When I'm there, I realize it is time to check the fuel tank. I've found that when I feel the need to work overtime, it is almost because I'm trying to make things happen on my own, in my own strength, and in my own power. I know there are times I've been a self-proclaimed workaholic and proclaim it as if it is something to be proud of.
In reality, a workaholic is someone who is living her life by the motto–“Me! Me! Me! It all depends on me!” If you feel that way, there's a red flashing light on your dashboard that reads, “Warning–you are operating in the flesh. You are running on fumes. You must stop and fill up with Jesus.”
When I wrote this I was wide awake at 5:00 am thinking about what needed to be done, after working until midnight the night before. The night before I had been edgy and irritable with Mike before dinner, and generally out of sorts. My mind went to Psalm 127:2. The interpretation of this verse from the Amplified Bible is “It is vain for you to rise early, to retire late, to eat the bread of anxious labors--for He gives [blessings] to His beloved even in his sleep.”
No one, you or me, can experience the joy of the Lord on a regular basis without “margin” in their life. You don't need to put in 16-hour days to get it all done. You do need to work, but you don't need to overwork. Get in the rhythm of pitting in a strong eight hours of work, then another eight hours to rest, refresh, reset, recreate, and relate to those you love. Then finish with a final full eight hours of sleep. You can sleep peacefully because God is working the night shift for you. He is “Giving to His own, even while they sleep.” If you don’t wake up refreshed every morning there is a problem that needs to be fixed.
The good things that happen in your life don’t all depend on you. God is the great multiplier. He goes to work when you close your eyes and rest in His provision on your behalf. The best things that have happened to me have been things I didn’t have my fingerprints on. They are things that happened “while I was sleeping.”
Do any of you who went to Bellevue remember my father closing the Sunday evening services with: “Go to bed tonight and sleep well. Rest your head on your pillow and pillow your soul on the promises of God, for the God who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps?" Then the lights would dim and the choir would gently sing: "Now the day is over, night drawing nigh, shadows of the evening, still across the sky. When the morning weakens, then may I arise, full and fresh and sinless, in thy Holy Eyes. Amen.”
That's what some people are talking about when they refer to "the good old days."
Ahh rest.
