Spiritual Sleep Disorder?
Driving into work on Friday, I heard a talk show host talk about his struggles with sleeping. He shared some alarming statistics and then immediately my mind jumped straight to Romans 13:11–14. Before you look it up, take note of what various researchers are discovering out about the sleep problems many Americans endure:
An estimated 32.8 percent of adults do not get enough sleep, meaning about one-third of the adult population is sleep-deprived.
About one in five (or 20%) of people in the United States report feeling sleepy during the day.
Almost 30 percent of adults had trouble falling or staying asleep, and more than 27 percent experienced daytime sleepiness.
Seven to nine hours of sleep are required for a healthy lifestyle.
Poor-quality sleep can negatively impact your mental health and cognitive function and increase your risk of heart disease and diabetes.
Long-term poor sleep can reduce your lifespan by 4.7 years for women and 2.4 years for men.
The most common sleep disorders are insomnia (25–30M), narcolepsy (200K), restless legs syndrome (RLS – 3M), and sleep apnea (30M).
What is interesting to me is how God uses “sleep” in the His Word:
Real physical sleep (Matt. 25:5)
Trust in God (Psalm 3:5–6)
A blessing from God (Psalm 4:8)
Physical Death awaiting the resurrection body (1 Thess. 4:13–14)
Spiritual apathy or lack of awareness
The Romans 13:11–14 passage came to mind not because it was about the struggle to rest or trust in God, but it was about getting radical about avoiding spiritual apathy. You can summarize this passage by asking this question: What time is it? And Paul highlights three things:
1. It’s time to get up (11–12a: “Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near.”)
Paul called the Ephesian church to “Awake sleeper, and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you” (Eph. 5:14).
The church can’t afford to get lazy and lethargic, so what’s the hurry? Paul says two things: 1) “salvation is nearer than when we believe.” We are daily getting closer to our homegoing and the Lord’s return. 2) “The night is almost gone and the day is at hand.” This is a call to live with readiness as the nighttime of world history will soon give way to the daylight of Christ’s glorious kingdom.
2. It’s time to gear up (v. 11a: “the night is almost gone”; v. 12a: “put on the armor of light.”
The imagery here is of a soldier who has been engaged in a night orgy and drinking and has fallen into a drunken stupor. This reminds us of the raging battle we are in every day with Satan, fleshly lusts, and the world system of evil. So what do we do? Paul says: 1) Strip off your deeds of darkness like “carousing, drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, sensuality, strife and jealousy” (v. 13) and 2) Suit up in your daytime defense that is putting “on the armor of light” (v. 12b) that protects us from all our enemies.
3. It’s time to grow up (v. 14: “but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision in regard to its lusts”).
Paul uses another metaphor of getting dressed and tells us to do two things: 1) Dress up the right way by putting “on the Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 14a). Abide in Christ (John 15:12) and 2) Deny access to the wrong way by making “no provision in regard to its lusts” (v. 14b). Don’t fuel your flesh with foul, premeditated thinking and set yourself up for defeat and disaster. Stay in the word daily (Psalm 19:11) and walk by the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:16).
The key to all of this is first waking up so you can respond alertly to all that is happening around us in this dark world.
Pastor Jeff
“The Holy Scripture is an inexhaustible treasury or repository of spiritual mysteries and sacred truths.
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