Tossin' and Turnin'...

"Casting all your care upon him: for he careth for you." (I Peter 5:7)

Good morning, dear......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Photo: markusspiske pixabay

Sorry, must have dozed off for a minute there.

Ever have one of those nights that never seems to end?

I don't usually have trouble sleeping.  My heart goes out to my friends who suffer from chronic insomnia, or to new moms who are faithfully tending their newborns all night long.  Usually, by the time my head hits the pillow at night, I am already half out.  Many times I find myself closing my eyes before I finish my evening chat with Jesus about my day.

Last night was like that for me...until about 2 am.

(Why is it, that when I wake up in the middle of the night, invariably it is around 2 am?  Why not 3:45 or midnight?)

I fell asleep almost instantly last night, and then, I was awake.

Not a drowsy, trudge to the bathroom and then waddle back to the bed half awake.  WIDE awake.

I couldn't figure out what was different.  There was no late afternoon coffee or coke, no weird happenings right before I went to bed.  Just that uncomfortable wide awake sensation that meant I would not be returning to sleep for a while.

What do you do in those situations?  Sometimes I have gotten up and read for a while, or wandered over to my computer to see if any of my American friends were online to chat.

Last night, however, I didn't want to get up, so I held vigil in my bed.

And prayed.

Sometimes I think the Lord just wakes me up in the night, to remind me of unfinished business in my heart.  Or people He knows that need help right then.  I have friends that are travelling by airplane today from the US.  Friends who have cancer, or have been in accidents, or have lost loved ones, or have recently gotten married.  My own family and friends were heavy on my heart last night, and so I prayed.

I often heard as a young Christian, that if I wake up in the middle of the night, to pray, and because Satan hates to hear a Christian pray, he will cause us to fall back asleep quickly.

That may be true, but there is so much more to it than that for me.

Prayer changes me.  It takes the worries I have for my family and friends off my shoulders, and places my burdens in the right hands.  Many times I don't even realize that I am worried for others or situations in my life, until that moment when I give them to the Lord.

I spent a long time in prayer last night, until I finally fell back asleep.

And while I am awake and tired now, my heart is lightened.  I know that God is already working out His perfect will in the lives of those for whom I prayed last night.

The verse that I quoted at the top of the blog is usually a verse that comes to mind isolated by itself:  "Casting all your care upon him: for he careth for you." (I Peter 5:7)  As I was rereading the passage this morning in its context, I was surprised to find this verse tucked into a passage about authority and submission to authority.  The first verses of chapter five talk about pastoral authority and my submission to their leadership, younger people being submitted to their "elders," and all of us submitted to Christ.

I Peter 5:6 gives the key to this submission:  "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:"  I must be willing to submit myself to the Lord, in all humility, before I can cast all my care upon him.  If I am still trying to have the upper hand and wrangle out my problems before the Lord, I will fail miserably.  I will not receive the perfect answers that only come from God, and I will be unrested and ineffective as His child and servant.

I do not know what challenges I may face today, nor how the Lord will see fit to answer the prayers that I offered during the night, but I want to be willing to accept this day, and its trials and blessings, as a precious gift from my Father's hand.  May I be submitted to His guidance, and wait patiently for the answers that He will bring.

I do see a nap in my afternoon future, however....