How To Get A Good Night’s Sleep

Do you have trouble sleeping?

While I can stay in REM sleep during a hurricane giving birth to an F4 tornado while fireballs bomb my neighborhood and earthquakes converge on my home as a freight train rumbles past my bedroom window, my beloved bride, on the other hand, struggles with sleep. We’re talking –

STRUHG. GUHLE.

My wheelchair has a tilt mode and all I gotta do for a snooze is turn on the television and lean all the way back. Lights out. Gone. Goodnite Irene.

But my poor wife though. I’ve never seen anyone fight and scratch for an hour’s sleep here, an hour’s sleep there. I keep telling her to download one of my old sermons. I mean, everyone else slept well.

Then there’s Jeremiah. The Old Testament Jeremiah, that is. Young dude. Suffered like it was his vocation. Wrote a book of dirges. Cried. A lot.

But he slept like a well-fed, cleaned-up, worn-out baby.

Jeremiah 31:26
At this, I woke up and looked around. My sleep had been very sweet.

Makes you wonder, if all he knew was loss, trial and exile, what was his secret to sleeping well?

My boy, who went to be with Jesus last Christmas, did not enjoy bedtime as a toddler. He was most fearful of bad dreams, and after our “Now I lay me down’s”, and prayers for family, protection and blessing, Graham would ALWAYS include

Dear Jesus, I pray that Mommy and Daddy and I really, really won’t have bad dreams!

This was so important to our little guy that on many nights he jumped right in with that prayer, added it again in the middle and put it in again at the close for extra oomph. Needless to say, he didn’t sleep all the way through the night until he was five years old.

Evidently, Jeremiah wasn’t plagued with bad dreams, though his daylight hours were themselves a waking bad dream. So how’d he do it? How did the Weeping Prophet manage to sleep sweet in Jesus?

In the long passage of Jeremiah 30-31 we find seven lullabies that Yahweh sang over him as he slept. So, for your slumbering pleasure, I offer the same soul-satisfying tunes in this post.

1. We’re being prepared for a New Home where we’ll never know exile again

Jer 30:1-14
“I will break the yoke from their necks
and snap their chains.
Foreigners will no longer be their masters.” (v8)
“I will save you from far away…” (v10)

2. God sees our wounds and is moved to heal each and every infirmity

Jer 30:12,17
“I will give you back your health
and heal your wounds,” says the Lord. (v17)

3. Our labors will be remembered, our tears recalled and sacrifices restored – nothing of this lifetime will be wasted in That Day

Jer 31:16
But now this is what the Lord says:
“Do not weep any longer,
for I will reward you,” says the Lord. (31:16)

4. Even our discipline for going astray will produce a better life than we imagined for ourselves

Jeremiah 31:18-20
“Are you not still mine still my son,
my darling child?” says the Lord.
“I often have to discipline you,
but I still love you.
That’s why I long for you
and surely will have mercy on you.” (v20)

5. My heart’s romance with the One who redeems me is going deeper and taking on fuller meaning

Jeremiah 31:21,22
For the Lord will cause something new to happen—
His people will embrace her God! (v22)

6. We will never know rejection as we have full status as sons and daughters, even as His Bride

Jeremiah 31:36,37
“I am as likely to reject my people…
as I am to abolish the laws of nature!” (v36)

7. He changes our Story: from exiles and slaves to redeemed and free…and nothing can change the story back again

Jeremiah 31:40
And the entire area—including the graveyard and ash dump in the valley, and all the fields out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the Horse Gate—will be holy to the Lord. The city will never again be captured or destroyed.

Isaiah 61:3
he will give a crown of beauty for ashes,
a joyous blessing instead of mourning,
festive praise instead of despair.
In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks
that the Lord has planted for his own glory.

Ah, I see you’re beginning to nod off.

Good, then.

I pray the Lord will sing over you His lullabies and you’ll sleep sweet in Jesus.

Selah.