Rest Well

If the Lord doesn’t build the house, the builders are working for nothing. 
If the Lord doesn’t guard the city, the guards are watching for nothing.
It is no use for you to get up early and stay up late, working for a living.
The Lord gives sleep to those he loves.           Psalm 127:1-2 (NCV)

The LORD gives sleep to those He loves. My mother-in-law sent this Word to us last night. She sends something from God’s Word to us most every night. She lives over a thousand miles away from us so she doesn’t know what is happening in our lives, day to day. God does.

I haven’t been sleeping well. I believe its because I have a bit of arthritic pain and so some nights are not so good for rest. Does God care if I am sleeping? I believe so because I am His child and my health is important to Him.

As I read the whole of Psalm 127 last night after receiving the Scripture in Mom’s email, I stopped to ask myself if anything in the lines before the promise of sleep were blocking God’s promise of rest in my life. Do these verses speak to the economy and the upcoming election? (I am not going to get political here.)

I went through a five year or so period of time when I worked 60-80 hours/week at my job. I had an opportunity to achieve not only local but national notice in my career. So I would arrive at work at 7 a.m. and work until 7 – 8 p.m. every night and often on weekends. I had a pager with me at all times and eventually even one of those big, heavy cell phones. I was important! I wonder how many people reading this today could raise their hand to similar experiences. The crossroad that God brought me to was twofold. First, it became a not so subtle pressure from my boss that if I wanted to continue in my present position, a graduate degree would be necessary. So in addition to my heavy work week, I was going to have to commit to going back to college. Where did my family figure into this? Second, my marriage was rapidly disintegrating and I had three children that needed a parent who was actually present in their lives and gave more than lip service as to how much they were loved and a high priority. I remember sitting at my desk one day and looking at a photo of my children and thinking how the two older ones would be graduating from high school in three years and gone from our home. I didn’t consciously recognize it at the time but God was lifting the fog of deception. Parents, anyone who tells you that “You can have it all!” is a liar. Yes, you can have a career and family and personal life but there is going to be a price. Time is finite. Something will become the price for doing the “all”. I had to choose my priorities and give time to those priorities based on their importance. I have never regretted making the choices that I did. I do not have a graduate degree today but I do have a family that loves the LORD and I am proud and yet humbled by His faithfulness.

Yes, God does give sleep to those He loves. He does that by faithfully being the keeper of our daily schedules, if I will allow Him to do so. Do the tasks He gives me to the best of my ability every day and leave the success of my life to Him, so He gets all the glory for it!

So if worry about my job and whether I will have health insurance next year is keeping me from resting in peaceful sleep, God has been at His job for a very long time and has brought me through. His promises are to be trusted. My “worth” is not truthfully calculated by this world. They do not know me. They do not see who I am or what I do like my LORD does. Rest comes with knowing that the One that I worship loves me more than I can imagine (Ephesians 3:14-21), will watch over me as I sleep and has all my tomorrows in His hands.

You Are Beautiful written and sung by MercyMe (2010)