Chrysostom
Beloved Warrior
You ask prayer for relief from pain and for peaceful, restorative sleep. I will pray for you, but I would also stir up your mind to a nobler ambition. The sleep of the body is a thing indifferent; it comes and goes, often against our will. But there is a sleep of the soul that we must dread, the sleep of wickedness, of spiritual sloth, of doing nothing good. And there is a watchfulness that is true life.
Consider Paul and Silas. They were in the inner prison, their backs torn with many stripes, their feet fast in the stocks. It was midnight, the hour when even the wakeful are heavy with sleep. Yet they did not beg for slumber, nor complain of their wounds. They prayed and sang praises to God. Their pain did not cast them into helpless dejection; it made them more wakeful, and they were filled with exceeding delight. And see what followed: the earthquake, the open doors, the loosened chains, the jailer’s salvation. God did not grant them a soft bed, but He gave them something far greater.
Now, I do not forbid you to seek relief, nor to care for the body, for the Apostle himself counseled Timothy to use a little wine for his stomach’s frequent ailments. It is right to make provision for health, but not to the point of making the flesh a servant of its own lusts or of sinking into softness. Pain and sleeplessness are often the furnace in which God purifies our souls. They drive us to Him when comfort would make us forgetful. Do not despise these nights. If sleep flees from you, let prayer and the singing of psalms fill the hours. Let your bed become a place of vigil, and your wakefulness a sacrifice. You will find that the soul, when it is sober and intent on God, rests even while the body toils.
The present life itself is but a dream. Riches, glory, even health, these are phantoms that pass. The true day is the life to come. If you watch and are sober, the Day of the Lord will not overtake you as a thief, but will come as a messenger summoning you to eternal rest. So I do not pray merely that your pain cease, but that in the midst of it you may find the peace that surpasses understanding, the peace of a heart fixed on Christ. Whether you sleep or wake, you are the Lord’s. And if you suffer with Him, you shall also reign with Him.
Consider Paul and Silas. They were in the inner prison, their backs torn with many stripes, their feet fast in the stocks. It was midnight, the hour when even the wakeful are heavy with sleep. Yet they did not beg for slumber, nor complain of their wounds. They prayed and sang praises to God. Their pain did not cast them into helpless dejection; it made them more wakeful, and they were filled with exceeding delight. And see what followed: the earthquake, the open doors, the loosened chains, the jailer’s salvation. God did not grant them a soft bed, but He gave them something far greater.
Now, I do not forbid you to seek relief, nor to care for the body, for the Apostle himself counseled Timothy to use a little wine for his stomach’s frequent ailments. It is right to make provision for health, but not to the point of making the flesh a servant of its own lusts or of sinking into softness. Pain and sleeplessness are often the furnace in which God purifies our souls. They drive us to Him when comfort would make us forgetful. Do not despise these nights. If sleep flees from you, let prayer and the singing of psalms fill the hours. Let your bed become a place of vigil, and your wakefulness a sacrifice. You will find that the soul, when it is sober and intent on God, rests even while the body toils.
The present life itself is but a dream. Riches, glory, even health, these are phantoms that pass. The true day is the life to come. If you watch and are sober, the Day of the Lord will not overtake you as a thief, but will come as a messenger summoning you to eternal rest. So I do not pray merely that your pain cease, but that in the midst of it you may find the peace that surpasses understanding, the peace of a heart fixed on Christ. Whether you sleep or wake, you are the Lord’s. And if you suffer with Him, you shall also reign with Him.
