A good night’s sleep

I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me. – Psalm 3v5

I have never been a good sleeper. I hear about people who sleep all night and I am amazed that anyone can do it. I wake up for a couple of reasons, but one of them is that for years I severely battled worry and internal anxiety. I was so bad that I could get rashes due to my worry. I could spend night after night tossing and turning and worrying and fretting and thinking.

God has helped me a great deal in this area, but it seems like my body must just have adapted to that kind of sleep cycle. Though I don’t have the same kind of anxieties that I used to have, I can still find myself in those small hours fretting and getting anxious, then getting frustrated with myself because I was anxious, and the hours meant for sleeping slowly pass away.

David apparently didn’t have that problem. In the midst of being chased by the king and his army David could say – ‘I lay down and slept, for the Lord sustained me.’

The terrible truth is that the source of all of our worry and stress is because we are missing the second part of the verse in our lives. When we are occupied with worry and care it is, in reality, because we don’t really believe that the Lord is going to sustain us. We are too dependent on our own sustenance.

‘Be care-ful for nothing.’ Cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you.’ ‘The Lord sustains me.’

Why is it so hard to accept that our loving heavenly Father is really watching out for us?