Losing Sleep, Worry, Prayer, and the Power and Love of God

“Simplicity of heart, and freedom from anxiety, He expects of us and gives grace to have both.” – Jim Elliot

Do you ever lie awake at night because you are anxious or stressed about something? Happens to me all the time. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when this happens to you.

First of all, we are commanded by Jesus to not worry. If we are worrying we need to stop. An important clarification here is that there is a difference between a temptation to worry and the actual sin of worry itself. I think when most of us reflect on it we know the difference. It is natural, in my opinion to have fear or concern about something. It is normal for us to look ahead and wonder how things will pan out. But where we cross the line between temptation to worry and actual sin-worry, in my opinion, is where we leave God out of the picture and willfully doubt Him. Before we cross that line and enter into doubt, and insult the Father who loves us, we can decide that we are going to claim the promises that our heavenly Father has given us concerning worry, doubt, and anxiety.

Here are just a few off the top of my head:

“…for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” - Matthew 6:8

“No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.” - Joshua 1 (God speaking to Joshua before taking the promised land.)

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 8:38-39

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:6-7

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” ­- Matthew 6:25-34

And if those passages from the Bible are not enough, or maybe you forget them in the heat of the battle, just consider the very basic and self evident foundational truth about who God is and how He cares about you. God is the one who laid the foundation of the earth. Who set the atom in motion, created the mountains and the sea and all the creatures that inhabit them? This is the God that in Psalm 103 it says, “His throne is established in Heaven and He rules over all”. But that is not all. This is also the same God who loved you so much that He laid upon His Son, His only Son, your sins that you might have life now and forever. That is how much He loves you and cares for you. So there is no doubt that God has more than earned our trust as the One who not only has it all under control, but also has your best interests and the interests of those you love in mind.

Now if I am kept awake because of something going on in my life is that a sin? Is it a sign that I am worrying too much if I can’t sleep. Well I would say, not necessarily. In fact it may very well be a good thing that God is doing. Consider this.

David says in Psalm 119:62 “At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You, Because of Your righteous judgments.” In this Psalm David is repeating over and over a theme of how great God’s ways are and how much he desires to live and follow God’s law. It seems that David would wake in the middle of the night, and we know that David had much in his life that could be categorized as stress inducing, and he would pray to God, cry out to God, but also give thanks to God. This is a good thing from what I see.

Also consider Jesus and His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before Jesus was to go through his greatest trial yet. And what did Jesus tell them to do? He told them to stay awake and pray. The spiritual warfare at that moment was fierce. Prayer was the weapon to fight it. Is the warfare fierce in your life? Are there times that we should maybe lose some sleep to wield the weapon of prayer? Sadly, the apostles did not stay awake when they should have. Sometimes it is good for us to be awake and to pray.

Now that brings me to another important point directly related to the story in the Garden. When we are awake at night, is that not a great time and another chance to pray for the ones we love? Or do I dare say, we could also pray for our enemies? Are we willing to show love to our friends and enemies by praying for them in the middle of the night? Just like the disciples should have been there for Jesus, we too should be there for those we need to pray for. The middle of the night is a great time to pray for our children. It is also a great time to pray for those who have hurt us.

I had a friend once tell me that there were times in his life that he had no food and did not know when or where his next meal would come from. He told me that when this happened to him that he would say, “Well I guess that means God wants me to fast.” I think there are times when God tells us it may be time to fast from sleep. He may in fact be pleased when we wake up with something on our mind that is heavy and we just hand it to Him and give thanks that He has it under control and thank Him that He loves us so much.

So the next time I wake up in the middle of the night and my natural bent wants me to go into fits of worry, fretting, and anxiety attacks, I can instead say this prayer,

“Father in heaven, thank you that I am awake because I can give thanks to you in the quiet of the night. I don’t mind if I am tired tomorrow because you will give me what I need to do your will. It’s worth it to lose some sleep for this. The weight of this thing that is on my mind is too heavy for me but it isn’t for you. And this thing that I am tempted to worry about, I am not going to worry about it because you are taking care of me and the ones I love."

I have a long way to go in perfecting this behavior. It takes work for me to do this even though I know it is true. But it is true that we can count on God no matter what.

“There is no pit so deep, that God is not deeper yet.” – Elizabeth Ten Boom