#DailyDevotion Can’t Sleep? God Wants You To Pray
Psalm 77 With my voice I call to God -to God, with my voice; and He hears me. 2When I’m in trouble, I go to my Lord for help. At night I stretch out my hands without getting tired; I refuse to calm down. 3I remember God, and I sigh. I think of Him, and my spirit faints.
When you are praying, it means you believe God hears your voice. Why else would you talk and plead with someone you cannot see? Praying is a sign of faith and trust that God will not only hear you but that you believe He will help you.
Can’t sleep because you are troubled. Open your mouth like the psalmist and stretch out your hands to your heavenly Father. Do not get tired in prayer. Jesus gives us the parable of the widow who without ceasing tormented the ungodly judge in Luke 18 to encourage us to be persistent in prayer. It’s ok to refuse to calm down. Why does the psalmist sigh and his spirit faints when he remembers God? Because he knows what God can and will do but has not yet received the answer to his prayer. Though he believes God hears and will answer his prayer, it seems as if He does not and will not.
It is good at these times to open the book of Psalms and pray them heartily. They express well what we are feeling and experiencing when it seems God has forgotten us. Many of them in the 20’s section are particularly profitable. You may also go to Psalms 3, 6, 22, 28, 44, 56, 57, 71, 77 and 142.
(Music) 4You keep my eyelids open; I’m so troubled I can’t talk. 5I think of the early days, the years of long ago. 6At night I remember my song, my mind thinking and my spirit searching: 7Is my Lord rejecting me forever and not going to be kind again? 8Has His kindness stopped forever, and His promise been forever canceled? 9Has God forgotten to be merciful, or in anger locked up His mercy?
Can’t sleep either? Is God keeping your eyes open for prayer? The psalmist expresses all our fears we experience in the night hours when like is keeping us too busy to think about it, i.e. our problems. But not that everything is quiet, our flesh tempts us to think Adonai is never going to stop rejecting us or be kind to us again. It seems God’s kindness to us has stopped. It seems to us God has forgotten to be merciful to us and locked us up in His anger.
Yet we should remember Jesus has called us to pick up our cross and follow Him. He has called us to participate in Christ’s sufferings.(2 Cor. 1) Yes, it may seem as if we are cursed but as the Beatitudes (Matt. 5) show us, we are actually blessed. It is through these trials and tribulations God is forming us to be like Christ. (Rom. 5) He is preparing us to bear the weight of eternal glory and participate in His divine nature. (2 Cor. 4)
I know it is tough to take comfort in times of trouble to remember and believe God’s promises to those who experience suffering. So go ahead and lay your complaints before God until you have no more, until you have exhausted all your laments. Having done that then perhaps you will remember to go to the Beatitudes and be comforted by them.
Merciful God and Father, hear our pleas for help. Give us Your Holy Spirit at night when our hearts are troubled. May His groanings in us reach Your merciful and kind ears so we may know Your comfort and assurance that You are not angry with us but preparing and forming us into the image of Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.