While We Sleep

“Unless the Lord builds the house, the work of building it is in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the sentinel stands guard in vain.”

We live in a society that constantly urges us to achieve, accumulate and preserve. We work to reach a position, an income, a fortune. And, after attaining them, we often sacrifice our health and rest so as not to lose them.

Consumerism, intensified by social media, feeds desires that we do not always notice. As in the well-known metaphor of the frog in water that keeps getting hotter, we gradually grow used to the pressure, until we consider it a natural part of life.

And religion can also contribute to this, when it turns life with God into an endless succession of efforts to achieve what he has already given us.

The psalmist continues:

“It is in vain that you rise early and go to bed late, working hard for food. The Lord gives sleep to those he loves.”

And another version sheds light on a precious dimension of this declaration:

“To his beloved he gives it while they sleep.”

This is not about abandoning work or responsibilities. It is about recognizing who truly sustains our life.

Ecclesiastes observes that whoever loves money is never satisfied and that the abundance of the rich does not let them sleep. Paul warns that the love of money is a root of evils and identifies greed as idolatry.

Jesus presents us with another path:

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

But there is something even deeper.

Jesus promised that the Father and the Son would make their home in those who love him. And Paul announces the mystery that was hidden for generations: Christ in us, the hope of glory.

If Christ lives in us, why do we keep living as if everything depended exclusively on our own ability?

Job's experience

He lost his possessions, his children and his health. His wife discouraged him, and his friends, instead of comforting him, insisted on accusing him.

Yet the book records something surprising: the Lord restored Job's fortunes while he prayed for his friends.

In the middle of his own pain, Job turned to those who had also hurt him.

Is this not a precious expression of a life that stops revolving exclusively around itself?

Being a blessing

The blessing promised to Abraham did not end with him. God would bless him, and he would be a blessing to all the families of the earth.

In Christ, this promise reaches an extraordinary dimension: through faith we receive the promised Spirit.

Not to accumulate blessings, but to be a blessing.

Perhaps it is time for us to realize how much of our restlessness is born from trying to accomplish, by the strength of the flesh, what only the Spirit can produce.

Entering God's rest

And the letter to the Hebrews presents us with an even deeper invitation: to enter God's rest.

“For whoever enters God's rest also rests from their works, as God rested from his.”

And right after that we find a surprising exhortation:

“Let us therefore strive to enter that rest.”

Striving to rest!

This is not one more achievement through human effort, but persevering in faith, without allowing unbelief to keep us from the rest that God offers.

It is not simply resting after finishing everything we had to do. It is living by faith, trusting the one who remains with us and dwells in us.

The Lord builds. The Lord guards. The Lord gives.

And we can work, serve, love and rest.

Because Christ lives in us.

And to his beloved he gives it while they sleep.