To Sleep or Not To Sleep

“The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping.” Acts 12:6

The scene was filled with drama and suspense—and all eyes were on the local jail.

An evil king chuckled in anticipation of another apostle going down and his approval rating going up. The Jewish people wrapped up Passover and waited eagerly for the public trial. Stoic guards, four squads of four soldiers each, secured the cell around the clock to preclude any possibility of the captive’s escape. And the prisoner—with only one night left between life and death and only a few hours away from certain doom—was…sleeping like a baby. What? No clawing the walls? No pacing the floor? No fretting his final hours?? No, nothing but sound, solid sleep.

How? How could one sleep so good in times so bad? Simple—the prisoner believed God. Peter had the direct word of Jesus that he wouldn’t die young. Not long before, by a lake after breakfast, Jesus had restored the thrice-denying Peter and revealed a bit about his future. “I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go”(John 21:18). At the time, Jesus’ statement seemed liked an unconnected comment—perhaps something to store for later but not live by today; however, on that deep, dark night, as Peter’s chains clanked in his cell and the executioner sharpened his sword, Peter had to choose what he would do with those words. Would he look at the in-your-face facts of his circumstances and decide that all was lost or would he believe what God had said?

A rattling snore was his answer. Because Peter knew who Jesus was, Peter believed what God said—and he slept away. At that moment, Peter didn’t know how God would deliver or what God would do, but he knew he wouldn’t die the next day. He wasn’t old enough.

As Hudson Taylor, the famous and faithful missionary to China, once said:

There is a living God.
He has spoken in the Bible.
He means what He says and will do all that He has promised.

Even when your situation screams otherwise, you can snore in the storm when you believe what God has said.
Take Him at His Word. And sleep well.