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“He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”

I find it difficult to comprehend someone who never sleeps. Everyone needs sleep. In His great wisdom, God designed us to require sleep. Maybe He knew we couldn’t handle life with no mental break. Or He discerned that we needed a new start every 24 hours to continue on in life. There’s a reason the phrase “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life,” is such a comfort. We need God’s goodness and mercy to pursue us every day. We need a break from how we handled things yesterday to how we’re going to take things on today. I thank God for sleep and the refreshment it brings.

But God never sleeps. He never reaches a point of exhaustion. He never gets mentally tired so that He has less ability to focus. He never switches His phone to silent or shuts it off so that we can’t reach Him in prayer. He never falls asleep on the job. Since we don’t know anyone else who has this capacity, we may find it hard to relate to or believe.

Yet this is one of the many great characteristics of God. We tend to want to bring God down to our human level so we can relate to Him and He’s not so threatening. God certainly did come down to our level in sending Jesus who willingly subjected Himself to human limitations. But in times like these we especially need to focus on the greatness of God.

God is holy. God is all-powerful. God is all-knowing. God is the Creator. God is independent. He does not need us or the rest of creation to sustain Him. God is unchangeable. God is eternal. God is everywhere present. God is ultimately wise. God’s knowledge and words are true and He is the final standard for truth. God is good, loving, merciful, gracious, patient, righteous and just. God is perfect. God is beautiful. God is glorious. And God never sleeps.

So pray and connect with Him anytime, anywhere about anything.

“Thank you O God, that you never sleep. Even though we can’t totally relate, we thank you for this reality about you. Thank you for being available for prayer when we sit down to pray or when we cry out in desperation. Thank you for hearing us in the middle of the night and in the middle of our day. Please continue to watch over us; protect us and guide us through every moment of every day.”