Psalm 121 reminds us that God does not “slumber or sleep.” Isaiah tells us that “the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired.” That’s hard to imagine for people like us who spend a quarter of our time on earth (at least) unconscious in bed. Even when we’re not in bed, a single day full of activity can leave us mentally and physically exhausted. Not God. He never slumbers or sleeps, he never flops on the couch and rests his eyes, he never gets tired at all.
This is encouraging. When my brain is foggy and I’m crashing after a long day, I know I can still bring my requests to a God whose thinking is perfectly clear, and whose ability is not diminished in the slightest by all the other things he’s done that day. I’m not like this. Everything I do wears me down a little more, brings me closer to my limit. When I’m running out and requests are still coming in, it’s easy for me to feel overwhelmed. On my worst days, being overwhelmed can make me feel resentful of all that is required of me. Does God feel like this? Is he overwhelmed when I come to him with my constant burdens, or resentful when I present (again) my never-ending needs? No. The Bible is clear.
I may get tired of being needy, but God doesn’t get tired of providing for his children.
I may get tired of always asking, but God doesn’t get tired of answering his children.
Just like he loves making another few trillion daffodils every spring, and providing food for billions of birds every winter, he continues to love answering the prayers of all his needy children, over and over and over again. My need for him never ends—and he’s okay with that. In fact, he tells me to come, every day, for my daily needs like my daily bread and his forgiveness and strength to forgive others and to see his kingdom established in the world in righteousness and peace and justice—and every burden of every kind, big or small; as Peter says, “cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
All of it. Because he cares. My anxiety over the problems in and around me is a heavy burden. It’s a burden that easily wears me out. But “the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired.”
by Seth Lewis – sethlewis.ie