I lie down and sleep; I wake again because the Lord sustains me.
Psalm 3:5, Christian Standard Bible
Of the moments of life, we are most vulnerable as we sleep. When we are asleep, we cannot see what is coming. When we are asleep, enemies can sneak up on us.
In a way then, every night that we go to bed is an act of faith. We trust that we can sleep and not be harmed. We trust that when we shut our eyes they will open in the morning.
For the follower of Jesus, we can have this trust because of God. He is a shield around us (Psalm 3:3). But here’s the twist: Our confidence isn’t based on whether or not we open our eyes in the morning. Yes, Psalm 3 is a prayer by David trusting that God will keep him safe, physically, from his enemies. And most nights, God does this for his people.
The real confidence, though, comes in response to the possibility: What if my eyes don’t open in the morning?
If we belong to Jesus, then if we die in our sleep we wake in his presence. Faith keeps us from fear because we know that even if the worst is to happen in this life, we have the hope of greater joys in the life to come.
Close your eyes. Rest easy. God is in control.
Image source: Photo by Biel Morro on Unsplash
First Baptist Church 