DEVOTION//The solution to sleeplessness

I did not sleep well last night. I was awake at 3:00 am and could not fall back to sleep.

At work at 3:00 am

My rule is, if I lie awake in bed for 30 minutes, I must get up to make more productive use of that time.

So I rolled out of bed, quietly shut the bedroom door (I didn't want to wake my wife), and settled into my office six steps down the hall.

An hour later -- after taking care of some 316NOW business and reading emails -- I headed back to bed. This time sleep was waiting for me.

Troubled at 3:00 am

The psalmist Asaph teaches me that I could have made more productive use of my time.

In Psalm 77, Asaph describes a time he couldn't sleep. "In the day when I was distressed I sought the LORD. At night my hand was stretched out, and it never grew tired, but my soul refused to be comforted" (verse 2).

He says of God, "You propped my eyelids open." What an interesting thought. When sleep eludes us, God has a reason for allowing its escape.

Asaph didn't realize the blessing God wanted for him, however. His insomnia caused him to wonder, "Will the LORD reject forever? Will he never again show favor? Has his mercy vanished to the end?” (verses 7,8).

At rest at 3:00 am

That's when the blessing of God propping his eyes open became apparent. The torment of the LORD's imagined abandonment drove Asaph's thoughts toward who God actually is.

"I will remember the deeds of the LORD," Asaph determined. "I will meditate on all your work, and I will ponder all your deeds. O God, your way is carried out in holiness. What god is as great as God? …With your arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph" (verses 11-15).

Asaph's distress brought him to focus on what the LORD had done for his people through the centuries. He remembered, he pondered, he meditated on God's goodness and grace. He considered how the LORD redeemed his people. There's no clearer proof of the LORD's commitment than the way he paid for our sins and for our adoption as his children through the Savior who would come 1000 years later.

Thank you, Asaph. The much better way to spend those nights when God props my eyes open is to pop open his Word, not a Word doc. The more productive use of my time is to concentrate on the LORD's message, not a text message.