IF ONLY HE COULD BELIEVE

IF ONLY HE COULD BELIEVE

John woke up at about 2.30am one morning and attended to some work that he had to complete. After some time he prayed and then he went back to work. At about 4.40am he had an impression to go to bed, as he was to have a family prayer later, requiring him to be awake by 5.50am. As he lay on the bed, he felt strongly that he would fall asleep, as he asked God to grant him rest.

After a while on the bed, John started to doubt that he would be able to sleep. He questioned whether it was God that gave the conviction that he would fall asleep. At one instance he felt the urge to use the restroom. God comforted him with an assurance that he would have rest so he lay on his bed. The swinging sound of the door in his parents’ room made him wonder if it was already time for the family devotion. It couldn’t have been. He asked God for help to sleep. A deep impression he received was to think of heavenly things but his restlessness would not help him concentrate.

John lay down with his belly on the bed. That was his regular sleeping position. He thought it might help but then again he turned the other, saying in his heart, “If God can bring sleep, my position doesn’t count.” A while later John returned to his former position. His father peered into his room. Ideally John would have started a conversation with his father at this point but he lay still, after which his father left the room. He checked the time. “5.33am – wow!” There was little time left. “If I can still sleep, I will share the testimony with everyone”, he said to himself. He was now more focused on this “testimony” than he was in actually sleeping.
After thinking through the great testimony that he would share if he could get some sleep, John looked at the time. “5.44am – unbelievable!” He wondered what was happening and then within minutes his alarm went off.
There is a lot to learn from John’s experience. Someone might wonder if John had heard from God in the first place. Had it been God, that gave the original conviction that he would be able to fall asleep? Yes, this was the case. God communicates with us and gives promises and assurances in spite of visible challenges that would make his promises seem unachievable. It is our responsibility to believe and allow his promises materialise in our lives. Let us analyse this case a bit.

God gave John a promise of rest. John did not believe and he became distracted – thoughts of using the restroom, the noise from the door in his parents’ room and other issues began to weigh in on his thoughts, rather than concentrate on the issue of concern – his rest. It is the same with our daily lives: we receive messages from God but our surroundings cause us to be distracted from the messages and promises that God gives us. Sometimes the distractions we get are from family. At a point John was convinced to concentrate on heavenly things. This was as good as a formular. In spite of that, John could not achieve the goal of falling asleep. He may have been having difficulty imagining heavenly things as someone who had not been to heaven before but all he would have needed to think of was a place with peace and serenity, where the streets were made of gold. That might have been enough.

At a point John altered his sleeping position in a bid to sleep. He didn’t need to do that. Already it was his custom to sleep on his belly. Assuming that God would bring sleep about through a different sleeping position was unnecessarily presumptuous and a waste of the already little time that he had left. It is definitely possible for God to do something in a different way from what one has previously experienced but there is no reason to expect also that everything he does will be in a manner different from what he has previously done. Since God had been faithful in bringing sleep when John lay on his belly, considering the other sleeping position was just not necessary. John had not yet demonstrated belief in God with the normal routine so the new one he instituted was just not needed.

John’s silence upon his father’s peering into the room was a good move because he saved himself the trouble of having to enter into a conversation, which would cost him the goal for which he lay on the bed. However, having realised that the time was short, beginning to think about the great testimony he would be able to share in the end if he was able to get sleep in spite of all the oddities that he “might soon experience” was a silly and needless time waster.

Finally it was 5.44am. Incredible! Did this mean that God was unable to fulfil His promise to John? Could it be that he who said, “You will sleep” could not do as He had assured? Tick! Tick! Tick! The alarm went off. Was it God who spoke from the beginning? Our walk with God often follows a similar pattern and we conclude that it is not God that is speaking to us. God speaks to us but our doubt can overshadow His word in our lives, in which’s case we would end up in a ditch, looking for a way out. May God help us in our walk with Him, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

By
Ikenna Anyadike

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