The Coffee Maker I Set for 4:30 and Shut Off Before It Finishes Brewing
The Coffee Maker I Set for 4:30 and Shut Off Before It Finishes Brewing
RedeemedExistence daily devotional, October 11, 2026
My coffee maker has a timer, and most nights I still set it for 4:30 the way I have for years, because that is when a working man gets up if he wants to beat the traffic and still have a few quiet minutes before the house wakes. Lately, though, I have started padding down the hall in the dark, hearing the machine gurgling to life right on schedule, and reaching over to shut it off before it finishes. I go back to bed for another hour, not because I am sleeping in that hour, but because I cannot make myself face the day a minute earlier than I have to. I am not hungover anymore. I have not had a drink in nine years. I am just tired in a way that sleep does not seem to touch, the kind of tired that sits behind my eyes at two in the afternoon and follows me into bed at ten at night, so that I wake up already owing somebody something.
I used to think exhaustion was a problem I could out-plan. Go to bed earlier. Cut the caffeine after noon. Take the vitamins my wife keeps buying. None of that is bad advice, and I still try most of it, but none of it touches the actual weight, which is not really about hours of sleep at all. It is the weight of carrying every outcome myself, of believing that if I do not personally hold the job and the marriage and the kid and the bills and the old guilt together with my own two hands, something is going to come apart. That is not a schedule problem. That is a soul that has forgotten whose hands this was always supposed to be in.
Jesus did not aim His invitation at people who were simply short on rest. He said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, NKJV). Labor and heavy laden, both words, because He knows the difference between a body that is tired and a back that is bent under a weight it was never built to carry alone. The psalmist names the exact trap I keep walking back into. "It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late, To eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives His beloved sleep" (Psalm 127:2, NKJV). I have read that verse for years and still catch myself rising early and sitting up late, white-knuckling my way through a day I was never meant to white-knuckle through.
Here is what my own effort cannot do, no matter how disciplined I get about bedtimes. Isaiah does not say the weary get strong by trying harder. "He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength... But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:29, 31, NKJV). Waiting on the Lord is not a nap. It is the deliberate act of handing the weight to Someone whose strength was never finite to begin with. The prophet Zechariah said it to a man staring at a job too big for him. "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6, NKJV). My muscle was never the point. The Spirit abiding in me was always the actual engine, and I keep forgetting to let Him run it.
This is exactly where ordinary human reasoning runs out of road. I can reason my way to better habits, but I cannot reason my way to the kind of rest Jesus is actually offering, because it does not come from circumstances lining up or from my to-do list finally shrinking. Paul tells the Philippians what that rest feels like from the inside. "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7, NKJV). Surpasses understanding, which means I will not be able to explain it later, only receive it. And on the nights when my outward man is clearly perishing, worn thin by a day I did not handle gracefully, Paul gives me the other half. "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16, NKJV). Renewed, present tense, happening in me right now whether I feel it at 4:30 in the morning or not.
This morning I let the coffee maker finish. I stood in the dark kitchen and let the Spirit do what my own management never could, and I am not promising you I will get it right tomorrow. But God is alive this morning, in your kitchen as much as mine, and He already knows exactly which alarm you keep shutting off and which weight you are still trying to carry on your own strength. He has a plan for your exhausted body and your worn-down soul that does not depend on you finally getting disciplined enough to earn His rest. He has told you plainly what He will do about it. "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, NKJV), and He will not leave you to carry it alone.
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Scriptures used (NKJV): Matthew 11:28; Psalm 127:2; Isaiah 40:29, 31; Zechariah 4:6; Philippians 4:6-7; 2 Corinthians 4:16.
RedeemedExistence daily devotional, October 11, 2026
My coffee maker has a timer, and most nights I still set it for 4:30 the way I have for years, because that is when a working man gets up if he wants to beat the traffic and still have a few quiet minutes before the house wakes. Lately, though, I have started padding down the hall in the dark, hearing the machine gurgling to life right on schedule, and reaching over to shut it off before it finishes. I go back to bed for another hour, not because I am sleeping in that hour, but because I cannot make myself face the day a minute earlier than I have to. I am not hungover anymore. I have not had a drink in nine years. I am just tired in a way that sleep does not seem to touch, the kind of tired that sits behind my eyes at two in the afternoon and follows me into bed at ten at night, so that I wake up already owing somebody something.
I used to think exhaustion was a problem I could out-plan. Go to bed earlier. Cut the caffeine after noon. Take the vitamins my wife keeps buying. None of that is bad advice, and I still try most of it, but none of it touches the actual weight, which is not really about hours of sleep at all. It is the weight of carrying every outcome myself, of believing that if I do not personally hold the job and the marriage and the kid and the bills and the old guilt together with my own two hands, something is going to come apart. That is not a schedule problem. That is a soul that has forgotten whose hands this was always supposed to be in.
Jesus did not aim His invitation at people who were simply short on rest. He said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, NKJV). Labor and heavy laden, both words, because He knows the difference between a body that is tired and a back that is bent under a weight it was never built to carry alone. The psalmist names the exact trap I keep walking back into. "It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late, To eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives His beloved sleep" (Psalm 127:2, NKJV). I have read that verse for years and still catch myself rising early and sitting up late, white-knuckling my way through a day I was never meant to white-knuckle through.
Here is what my own effort cannot do, no matter how disciplined I get about bedtimes. Isaiah does not say the weary get strong by trying harder. "He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength... But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:29, 31, NKJV). Waiting on the Lord is not a nap. It is the deliberate act of handing the weight to Someone whose strength was never finite to begin with. The prophet Zechariah said it to a man staring at a job too big for him. "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6, NKJV). My muscle was never the point. The Spirit abiding in me was always the actual engine, and I keep forgetting to let Him run it.
This is exactly where ordinary human reasoning runs out of road. I can reason my way to better habits, but I cannot reason my way to the kind of rest Jesus is actually offering, because it does not come from circumstances lining up or from my to-do list finally shrinking. Paul tells the Philippians what that rest feels like from the inside. "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7, NKJV). Surpasses understanding, which means I will not be able to explain it later, only receive it. And on the nights when my outward man is clearly perishing, worn thin by a day I did not handle gracefully, Paul gives me the other half. "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16, NKJV). Renewed, present tense, happening in me right now whether I feel it at 4:30 in the morning or not.
This morning I let the coffee maker finish. I stood in the dark kitchen and let the Spirit do what my own management never could, and I am not promising you I will get it right tomorrow. But God is alive this morning, in your kitchen as much as mine, and He already knows exactly which alarm you keep shutting off and which weight you are still trying to carry on your own strength. He has a plan for your exhausted body and your worn-down soul that does not depend on you finally getting disciplined enough to earn His rest. He has told you plainly what He will do about it. "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, NKJV), and He will not leave you to carry it alone.
---
Scriptures used (NKJV): Matthew 11:28; Psalm 127:2; Isaiah 40:29, 31; Zechariah 4:6; Philippians 4:6-7; 2 Corinthians 4:16.
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