At day’s end I’m ready for sound sleep, For you, God, have put my life back together.
Psalm 4: 8 The Message
A solid faith in God helps us go to sleep each night with a sense of peace. Psalm 4 affirms this truth in its final verse, verse 8. In the New Revised Standard Version, the verse reads, “I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.”
I will never forget an unbelievable example of this truth. Some years ago, when I was ministering in Weiser, Idaho, I heard a guest speaker at another church. He shared how he had been raised in the Mormon Church. At some point, he began reading the Old Testament and the New Testament, absorbing all that he read. After some time, he decided to go to an elder in his Mormon church. He shared with this person all that he had learned from the scripture that he had not learned in his Mormon church. Upon hearing this, his elder remarked, “You are sounding just like Billy Graham!”
Eventually, the speaker shared that he made the decision to leave the Mormon church he had grown up in. Upon doing so, his wife began to feel pressure from the Mormon church to leave him. As she considered her options, she began to reflect upon how her husband was doing after his decision. One of the things that she then shared with her husband was that he was right about his decision. She said to him, “You sleep too well at night to be lying to me!”
When we put our trust in the Lord, we will rest easier, and be more likely to sleep peacefully. As one person put it, “Why not turn all of your troubles over to God before you turn in? After all, He’s going to stay up all night anyway!”
While sleep may not always come easily to some people, resting in our faith in God helps. The Lord can give you a different kind of rest: a rest secure in His care. The key to a good night’s rest is to give God your worries, and to relax into His good and perfect care for you.
Prayer
Lord, thank You that you care for every detail of my life, right down to my time to rest. You stand guard even when I am sleeping! Forgive me when I do not trust You, and I spend my time worrying about things that You are already working on. Give me such peace, that I may set aside my worries in life, and allow sleep and Your care to restore my body and soul.
I pray this prayer in the name of Your son, and my Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen
