It is such a simple concept, but I was still taken aback when our preacher shared it Sunday morning:
"Sleep is a daily reminder from God that we are not God."
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. (Psalm 127:1-2)
What is so astounding about this Scripture and the complementing truth? Perhaps it is that I unintentionally exalt in how much I can accomplish by sacrificing sleep and rest. And when it really comes down to it, such laboring is in vain if I think myself capable of defying the vulnerability and weakness God wove into the fibers of my being.
I was MEANT to rely on Him, to trust in Him, to run out of steam, to find myself incapable of doing it all.
Unless God builds it, unless He's in it, all the laboring is in vain.
He WANTS us to grow weary, to call it quits, and to REST...which is precisely what we are called to in coming to the redemption of our souls, isn't it? That IS the Gospel.
If you are weary of trying so hard, if you are ready to call it quits on your own righteous efforts, Christ offers you TRUE REST.
And, if you are in Christ, then graciously embrace the daily gift-- the daily reminder-- that God is at work and is fully capable to continue His work in you and in all the world, while you sleep and rest.
(And as a side note, if you are a blogger...can I encourage you to look to this passage as a reminder that it is God who builds your audience, your writing, your platform? Let us not labor away at blogging and platform-building in vain, fellow-bloggers!)
"Sleep is a daily reminder from God that we are not God...
...Sleep is a parable that God is God and we are mere men. God handles the world quite nicely while a hemisphere sleeps. Sleep is like a broken record that comes around with the same message every day: Man is not sovereign. Man is not sovereign. Man is not sovereign. Don’t let the lesson be lost on you. God wants to be trusted as the great worker who never tires and never sleeps. He is not nearly so impressed with our late nights and early mornings as he is with the peaceful trust that casts all anxieties on him and sleeps."
-John Piper, from A Brief Theology of Sleep
Be at rest today, friends!