It’s 2:00 a.m., and I am wide awake. I have been awake for at least the last hour and a half and I do not feel like counting sheep is going to get me anywhere. I have tossed and turned and laid awake in disbelief that I was up. I have downloaded sleep sounds on my phone in hopes of getting lost in the sounds. So..... there was nothing else to do but get up! I washed a handful of dishes from earlier that I had planned to wash in the morning, but I guess it is morning.
Has that ever happened to you? You are tired, and you know that you have a busy day ahead of you, but you cannot sleep. You wake up, literally, in the middle of the night (or early morning) and nothing.
I have come to realize that the only way to go back to sleep in these instances is to figure out what was left unsettled in my spirit. There is something about the stillness that makes you sit up and take attention to those times when you seem too busy to think about anything other than what is right in front of you.
By the way, did you know that God did not intend for it to be that way? God never intended for us to spend all our time running from point A to point B, and not focus on the blessings that He prepared at point A, or the grace He extended to get us to point B.
As I ponder on these things, a common verse came to mind - Psalm 46:10. It is a a common verse that many people interrupt as a gentle reminder from God to remember that He is God and that He is in complete control.
Psalm 46:10 'Be still and know that I am God.'
Honestly, I have thought that for a long time. But lately, I tend to think of it as much more than a gentle reminder. I have begun to see it as a command and not so much as a suggestion. Think about it. Over the course of a usual day for you, how often are you moving faster than you may want to admit, doing more than you imagined, or plain busy when you don't have to be.
And do not get me wrong – I am not saying that you are busy doing “bad” things. We can easily pack every minute of our day with the “good stuff”. Our schedule is packed with our kids’ activities, sporting events that build character, or even hanging out with friends after work. None of those things are necessarily bad. But God is commanding us to take inventory of how we are spending our time and be still. I have can remember times when my grandmother was doing me hair as a young girl, and I would not stop fidgeting, she would pull on my hair that she gripped tightly in her hand and say, "BE STILL".
He is a God that is Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence.
He is all-powerful.
There is no other god, no other being that can match the power of God. And, if He is for you who can stand against you.
He is all-knowing. He knows your past and loves you still. He is with you in the present completely. And, He has great plans for your future – more than you can imagine.
He is all-present everywhere at the same time. You cannot hide from God.
And, in the middle of night when you cannot sleep, He is there to comfort your soul and guide you back to sleep.
When is the last time that you were still and recognized that He is God, all by himself, honestly?
Doing something for God (in my opinion) does not count. I am talking about spending time in His Word and mediating on it.
Jeremiah 23:23-24
“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.
Psalm 147:3-6
He renews our hopes and heals our bodies. He decided how many stars there would be in the sky and gave each one a name. Our Lord is great and powerful! He understands everything. The Lord helps the poor, but he smears the wicked in the dirt.
