31 Days: Pathway to Perseverance - Sleepless

As it is transitioning from early evening to dark of night millions of families are going through bedtime routines with little ones.  Lullabies play quietly and parents walk tiptoed and silent from rooms filled with fading soft night lights. 

Grown-ups have routines too. Maybe it is a warm bath with sweetly scented water. Or, a steaming cup of herbal tea to soothe weary bones. A spritz of lavender on pillow covers or a white noise app with nature sounds, all meant to provide rest.

For me, when my mind is racing or my heart is full, nothing helps. I spend nights tossing and turning until I cannot bear to stay in place any longer. Then, I am simply awake. Or, I drift into slumber for an hour or two only to wake and remain awake for what seems like forever.

Somehow, I have convinced myself that my sleepless self can solve the problems of the world (of my world) through spinning thoughts, replaying scenarios hoping that like solving a circular mathematical equation, I will somehow break the chain and all will be uprighted and OK again.

Somehow, I have convinced myself that if I stay awake, I will find a way to patch the holes in my heart that are leaking pain, worry, and anxiety.  But, I'm wrong. And hard as I try, I am keeping God from doing his work. Work that is only done when I trust fully in him.  Work that is only accomplished when I rest.

My personal lullabies have become Psalms and scriptures filled with God's promises to care for me and my needs, even while I am sleeping. These are the scriptures I am training my mind to reflect upon when sleep evades me.


Proverbs 3:24 "If you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet." 

Psalm 4:8 "In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

Isaiah 26:3 "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you."

Jeremiah 31:25-26 "For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing should I will replenish. At this I woke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me."

2 Thessalonians 3:16 "Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all."

Psalm 3:5 "I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the Lord sustained me."

Psalm 16:7 "I will praise the Lord who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me." 

Psalm 17:15 "As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face; I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness."

Psalm 42:8 "By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me --a prayer to the God of my life."

In the morning, with the glowing of the dawn, I remember God's unfailing love for me and that he has been at work watching over me, singing a new song over my life and from a place of rest, I can move forward through any circumstance of my life knowing without a doubt that God is with me. 


Photo credit:  https://www.pinterest.com/source/yahhudiim.blogspot.com/

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