In the Middle of the Night, Part 2: a Prayer.

Father God,

Another sleepless night.  Awakened, I ask you to settle my soul and provide sleep.  O God, the Psalmist wrote:

2 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.

I don’t go late to rest, I do rise early, but that is to spend time with You.  But I certainly do eat the bread of anxious toil.  If not physically, than mentally.  My mind is anxiously toiling tonight, in vain.

But this verse states that you give sleep to Your beloved.  You give it as a gift.  I loved the imagery that John Piper used when speaking of sleep:

“Once a day God sends us to bed like patients with a sickness. The sickness is a chronic tendency to think we are in control and that our work is indispensable. To cure us of this disease God turns us into helpless sacks of sand once a day. “

I am not God.  I am not God.  You are God.  Help me to remember that.

There has been such a string of sleeplessness as of late.  Help me to not fear sleep, but to see it the way that John Piper sees it.  To see it the way that the Psalmist sees it.  O God, I am not alone, because I know there are many others that find themselves awakened in the middle of the night as well.  May they be granted peace and sleep.  May I please be granted peace and sleep?  Please turn me into a “helpless sack of sand” instead of laying here anxious and goofed up.

Thank you God that in the middle of the night, I am not alone, even if it seems as if I am.  You are ever present.  You are ever present.

In Jesus Name, Amen