Sleepless Nights

Dear Sisters,

Good morning! How are you? How was your weekend? Whether it was spent with family or at work, I pray it was filled with an awareness of His presence and love. If your weekend has left you weary, here’s a prayer of perseverance for us from Jude (personalized!):

Father God, please build us up in Your most holy faith and help us to preserve in prayer in the Holy Spirit. Keep us in Your love as we wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring us to eternal life. You are able to keep us from falling and to present us before Your glorious presence without fault and with great joy. To You, the only God our Savior, be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Let’s turn to the Word together.

SLEEPLESS NIGHTS

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable then they?
Matthew 6:26

I didn’t sleep well last night. Woke up at 3:30 AM, started thinking about my to-do list, and had a difficult time shutting my brain off again. The next morning over breakfast, my hubby told me to go outside and look at the birds.

Glancing out the window, I expected to see something grand . . . a beautiful hummingbird on the flowers or a number of pheasants along the gravel road. Although I could hear sparrows, I didn’t see anything special. “What do you mean, go look at the birds?” I asked.

“The birds!” he said. “They don’t worry about tomorrow, and neither should you!” (Read Matthew 6:25-34.)

Ever have Scripture hit you in the gut? It did me. I read it. I write about it. I teach it. But am I living it? I needed that humbling reminder. Do you need it, too?

Sleepless nights can be some of the loneliest and forlorn hours. Job said, “When I lay down I think, ‘How long before I get up?’ The night drags on, and I toss till dawn. Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest” (Job 7:4, 30:17). David wrote, I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears (Psalm 6:6).

The next time you’re sleepless in Seattle or the place where you’re laying your head for the night, here’s God’s Word to you and me:

God is awake. You’re not alone. He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you – the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm – he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore (Psalm 121:4-8).

Remember His care. On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me (Psalm 63:8).

Pray. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me – a prayer to the God of my life (Psalm 42:8).

As a child when sleepless nights occasionally came, my dad would tell me, “Forget counting sheep. Talk to the Shepherd.”

Prayer Step: Are you experiencing sleepless nights? Use those precious hours to talk and listen to the Shepherd.

I am so weak that I can hardly write, I cannot read my Bible, I cannot even pray, I can only lie still in God’s arms like a little child, and trust.
Hudson Taylor

Grace and peace,

Lenae