Love Not Sleep (Proverbs 20:13)
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Proverbs 20:13
Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty;
open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.
Today is April Fools’ Day. Maybe you celebrate it, maybe you don’t. Either way, if you’re in North Carolina like me, you’re probably seeing fresh pollen everywhere, which means two things: spring has sprung, and so have some really awful – or really great – April Fools’ jokes.
Now, I’ll admit – I’ve been on the losing end of April Fools’ jokes more times than I’d like to remember. Most of them are just forgettable. But there was one a few years ago about UNC’s football team that actually got me. It genuinely made me laugh.
Why do I bring that up? Because April Fools’ jokes are hit or miss. They can be really great or really awful. And in the same way, sleep can be a blessing or a problem, a gift or a thorn, depending on how we treat it.
Sleep, by nature, is a good thing. In Psalm 127, we’re told in verse 2 that God ‘gives to His beloved sleep’. He designed us for rest. Without it, we can’t work; we can’t function.
Sleep is a great thing, a means of rest and, frankly – you’re not asking, but in my opinion – a means of humility. We all wish we had more time, and the fact that we spend some 30 years of our life in bed is a humbling truth. Who wouldn’t want that time back to do exciting things? But we are not God, and we cannot go without slumber or sleep like He can – try as we might.
That said, Proverbs 20:13 isn’t warning us about sleep itself. It’s warning us against having a loving relationship with it.
And when the verse says love, it’s love in the sense of loving a spouse, right? You spend a lot of time with your spouse, and rightfully so, because you love them.
Conversely, if we love sleep the way we love a spouse – if we spend excessive time with it, if it becomes something we prioritize over diligence and responsibility – that’s a problem. We shouldn’t love sleep that way. That doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy it as the gift it is to us, and it is a thing to be enjoyed. But we should not love it, because the love of sleep is the fruit of laziness, and that leads to poverty.
And Scripture warns us what happens:
Physically – If you don’t work, you don’t eat. (2 Thessalonians 3:10)
Spiritually – If you’re asleep to the things of God, you’re missing out on the life He has for you.
"Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty… open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread."
Plenty of bread. Open your eyes and you will have plenty of bread. In one sense, that’s material; in the other, it’s eternal: the Bread of Life.
How can you feast on the Bread of Life if your eyes are shut? If you’re literally asleep? How about if you’re spiritually numb? If you’re sleepwalking through your faith?
You see, for some of us – our eyes are technically open, but if God had a say (and He does), He’d still say we’re asleep. Just going through the motions. Checking the boxes. Stuck in routine, but not fully awake to Him.
That man or woman is impoverished spiritually. But the good news is that by God’s grace, He holds out spiritual blessing to us in the form of His Son Jesus Christ, the same way He held out manna for the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness.
So, in thinking through this verse today:
Are there areas in your life where you’re spiritually asleep?
What would it look like for you to open your eyes today?
And then, in a literal, more practical sense, where do you need to stop loving comfort and sleep and start pursuing Christ more intentionally?
Let’s take these thoughts to the Lord in prayer.
Father, we don’t want to sleep through the life You’ve given us.
Wake us up.
Open our eyes.
If we’ve been spiritually lazy, stir our hearts to seek You.
Give us a hunger for the Bread of Life.
