Daily Devotions

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

The NHS website tells us that the most common causes of insomnia and sleeplessness are anxiety that often brings with it its own stress and all to often depression. Are you one who lists, either physically or mentally all the concerns that surround your life as you try to nod off to sleep? 

For several years a woman had been having trouble getting to sleep at night because she feared burglars. One night her husband heard a noise in the house, so he went downstairs to investigate. When he got there, he did find a burglar. "Good evening," said the man of the house. "I am pleased to see you. Come upstairs and meet my wife. She has been waiting 10 years to meet you." 

In today's extract from ‘The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath’, Mark Buchanan writes. “Sabbath is that one day. It is a reprieve from what you ought to do, even though the list of oughts is infinitely long and never done. Oughts are tyrants, noisy and surly, chronically dissatisfied. Sabbath is the day you trade places with them: they go in the salt mine, and you go out dancing. It’s the one day when the only thing you must do is to not do the things you must. You are given permission— issued a command, to be blunt—to turn your back on all those oughts. You get to wilfully ignore the many niggling things your existence genuinely depends on—and is often hobbled beneath—so that you can turn to whatever you’ve put off and pushed away for lack of time, lack of room, lack of breath. You get to shuck the have-tos and lay hold of the get-tos.” 

In a word, it is our anticipated worries that work against our ability to find rest. Why? Because Worry is fear's extravagance. It extracts interest on trouble before it comes due. It constantly drains the energy God gives us to face daily problems and to fulfil our many responsibilities. It is therefore a sinful waste. A woman who had lived long enough to have learned some important truths about life remarked, "I've had a lot of trouble -- most of which never happened!" She had worried about many things that had never occurred, and had come to see the total futility of her anxieties.

Lord, When my mind starts going down the road of worry, guide me back to your path of peace. Remind me that you are not bound by time. You have been in my past, you are in my present, and you’re already in my future. Whatever I have to walk through, you’re already there. You know it. You are sovereign over it. I have nothing to worry about.

Help me to cast all my cares on you, because I know that you care about me. When my finances are tight, you provide my daily bread. When my heart is heavy, you are my consolation. When my health is precarious, you are the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Amen