Insomnia

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Proverbs 19-21; Psalm 4


TO CHEW ON: "I will both lie down in peace and sleep;
For You alone, O LORD, Make me dwell in safety." Psalm 4:8

Are you ever troubled with insomnia? I certainly am. I think perhaps David was too. For in this psalm he reminds himself (and us, the readers/listeners) that he should be able to sleep:

"Meditate within your heart on your bed and be still ...
I will both lie down in peace and sleep ..."

The Bible speaks of peaceful sleep coming as a result of:

• Doing a hard day's physical work - Ecclesiastes 5:12.

• Entrusting the final outcome of our work to God - Psalm 127:2

• Trusting God for general well-being and protection - Psalm 3:5; Proverbs 3:24 and our focus verse,Psalm 4:8.

• Trusting God in even extreme circumstances, like Jesus did in the storm-tossed boat (Mark 4:38) and Peter did in prison (Acts 12:6).

I would submit that often 'trust' is the secret to our ability to sleep well:

"... put your trust in the Lord ... For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."


PRAYER: Dear God, it is so easy to take the responsibility for my life on my shoulders and with it a load of fear and anxiety that keep me awake. Help me to trust You to the extent that I can relax in sleep. Amen.


PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 4

MORE: Insomniac prayers

One thing many of us do at night when we can't sleep is pray. (David mentions communication with God four times in this short psalm.)

I love how Donna Farley writes of nighttime prayers in her poem "The Geography of Prayer." Here is a sampling:


THE GEOGRAPHY OF PRAYER

my midnight wakeful prayers
the gift of insomnia
I hold a globe cradled in my hands
and the wave of prayer begins:

a slingshot drawn back to the west coast
then as if the daylight terminator reversed itself
sweeping eastward with mercy, healing,
over the homes of people I know
and people I don't...

....

But I can't be the only one who lies
awake nights like this.
Like lines of magnetic force
caressing the world I imagine prayers
emanating from the faithful
wrapping the world up like string
wound around the core of a baseball....

© 1999 by Donna Farley (Used with permission)
Read the entire peom here.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Spiritual benefits of insomnia

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 16:1-11

TO CHEW ON: "I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel;
My heart also instructs me in the night seasons." Psalm 16:7


What do you do when you can't sleep at night? Fret? Toss and turn? Count sheep? Take a pill?

Night wakefulness is referred to quite a few times in the Bible.

• For Job's friend Elihu it was a time of hearing God's songs (Job 35:10).

• For the psalmist Korah it was also a time of lingering songs as well as prayer (Psalm 42:8).

• For Psalm-writer Asaph night songs evoked meditation and spirit searching (Psalm 77:6).

• When Israel faced the Assyrians, Isaiah prophesied, not nighttime thoughts of dread and foreboding but "a song as in the night when a holy festival is kept" (Isaiah 30:29).

• Who can forget Paul and Silas, locked in stocks in a jail in Philippi, praying and singing hymns at midnight? We remember the miraculous jail break that followed (Acts 16:25, 26)!

• And in our psalm today, David testifies of God instructing him in the night seasons.

So next time we're troubled by insomnia, perhaps we should pause our fretting, turn our attention to God, and ask:

~ Do you have a song for me?
 
~ What Bible verses could I meditate on?
 
~ Who or what situation needs prayer?

~ Is there a battle somewhere that could be impacted by my praise and prayer?

PRAYER: Dear God, You know I don't usually think of sleeplessness as a good thing. Please help me to remember that it can be a time of prayer, song, counsel, meditation and spiritual warfare. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Night prayers

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Luke 5:33-6:16

TO CHEW ON: "Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day He called His disciples to Himself and from them He chose twelve whom He also called Apostles." Luke 6:12-13

As I grow older, one of the changes I've noticed in myself is that I don't sleep as well. What I try to remember to do during the minutes and hours of wakefulness, is pray.

I find I am in good company. As I study Bible characters who did the same thing, I discover that they spent time at night praying instead of sleeping for a variety of reasons.

1. Jacob spent all night wrestling with an angel of God the night before he had arranged to meet his brother Esau, from whom he had been estranged for years because he had tricked him out of his birthright.

2. Samuel, grieved and angry, "cried out to the Lord all night" after God told him that He regretted choosing Saul as king.

3. David woke at midnight with his heart so full of joy at God's "righteous judgements" that he got up to give thanks.

4. Jesus prayed all night before He chose His twelve apostles (our focus verse today).

5. Paul and Silas were still praying and singing hymns  at midnight after they had been arrested, beaten and locked up in a Philippian prison.

Watching these people pray during a time when folks normally sleep shows us:
- they were confident that God never sleeps.
- they believed praying would make a difference.
- they were eager to include God in every part of their day.

So, whether you're awake at night because tomorrow is a big day, your emotions are riled-up, or you're in too much physical pain and discomfort to sleep, take it as an invitation to join the crowd of night praye-ers. In fact, your night prayers are probably way more important to the situation than the sleep you're missing is to your next day.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You that You never sleep. Remind me to use the times at night when I can't sleep to commune with You. Amen.

MORE: Thoughts on prayer

"As a camel kneels before his master to have him remove his burden at the end of the day, so kneel each night and let the Master take your burden." — Corrie Ten Boom

"It's so easy to promise to pray for people, or just plan to pray for people, and forget. So many afflictions, so many tragedies or desperate hopes that cry out for intercession. Only an instant of my time, only a few words, a thought — and who knows? It may be the only word of prayer that person will get." — Marjorie Holmes

"Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening." — Matthew Henry

"Prayer is not something we do at a specific time, but something we do all the time." Richard Owen Roberts

My friend Jan Cox has begun writing a blog about prayer. Under the Cover of Prayer is full of encouragement to pray as well as prayer stories from Jan and others. Go visit. You'll be blessed!

Do your 8-12-year-olds have daily devotions? Point them to Bible Drive-Thru.