Never Asleep!

by melissa bradshaw

It wasn’t long after Mom had prayed with Emily and tucked her in for the night that she heard Emily calling out to her. Mom went down to her room to see what the matter could be.

“What do you need, Emily?” Mom asked softly.

“Mommy,” Emily began, “when you go to bed at night, do you go to sleep?”

Emily’s mom chuckled to herself. “Of course I do. Why do you ask?”

“Well,” Emily said thoughtfully, “every time I call out to you in the night, you always answer. I thought it was because you were always awake.”

Have you ever wondered the same about God? He says to us in Jeremiah 33:3, “Call to Me, and I will answer you.” God is just as Emily’s mom seemed to be—never sleeping and always there when we need Him.

This reminds me of the Bible story in which Elijah gathered the people together on Mount Carmel. Was the God of heaven the true God, or was their idol Baal the true God? After they had cried out to their god for many hours, Elijah said to the worshippers of Baal:

“Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened” (1 Kings 18:27).

By the end of the day, after nothing had happened, Elijah drenched his altar and the ground around it with water and called on God in the sight of all the people. God answered Elijah’s prayer with fire sent from heaven, which consumed not only Elijah’s offering but also the stones of the altar and the water that was poured over it! Israel then turned back to worshipping the true God. 

David tells us in Psalm 121:3, 4, “He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”

Wow! Can you imagine never sleeping? Because He is our God and we are His precious children, God always watches over us. There is one who “walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8); therefore, it would not be safe for us if God were to sleep. 

How comforting to know that whatever the time of day or night, we can call out to God, and He will hear us and deliver us!

Melissa Bradshaw is the Children’s Ministry coordinator for It Is Written Ministries. 

This article is provided by My Place with Jesus, a ministry of It is Written, a Christian media ministry based in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has been proclaiming the message of God’s love since 1956. Check out more fun and games on the My Place with Jesus website!