Sweet Sleep

Sleep is a marvelous thing especially when you haven’t had any. Just to snuggle down under the cool covers and lay our weary head on a soft fluffy pillow is so inviting and divine.

Recently I was ill and could find no ease or rest one night. Minute by minute, hour by hour, the time ticked away ever so slowly. I have come to appreciate sweet sleep so much more since then.

Tormenting is it when no sleep is possible in those dark wee hours of the silent night. Tossing and turning on what seems to be a bed of rocks. No comfort to be found. Restless wanderings of the mind; will this endless merry-go-round of distressing thoughts never cease? Is there no rest or peace?

But still worse yet in the night hours, I think, are the trappings of the mind, when one can’t escape unwelcomed dark and twisted nightmares that invade one’s sleep. Such torment comes and there is no release from this deep dark pit. We anxiously struggle to awake from this evil and fear. These frights in the night appear to be forever etched upon our soul.

There is but one satisfactory answer to this dilemma as I see it. Yes, torments will come in the night for various reasons, but we have a weapon mightier than this evil in the night hours. The Word of God, as strange as it may appear to some skeptics, can help us overcome the spiritual warfare of the darkest night. God’s mighty power at work in us has no limit!

It says in Isaiah 54:17 (ESV) that “No weapon formed against us shall prosper.” Then, in the New Testament (II Corinthians 10:4-5 ESV), the Bible states “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every  thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”

But what we must first do is “Submit to God; resist the devil and he will flee from us.” (James 4:7 ESV) For us to live victoriously over evil, we are to “Present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service. And we are not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind . . .” (Romans 12:1-2 ESV) And then as a result, His wonderful mercy, because His compassion does not fail, will be shed on us anew every morning; for great is His faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV)

One of my favorite verses that I repeat most every evening, before I retire for bed, is Proverbs 3:24 ESV: “When you lie down, you will not be afraid: Yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet.” And the next two verses are worth noting, too: “Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; for the Lord will be your confidence . . .”

By saturating our mind with God’s Holy word and standing fully garbed in His spiritual armor (Ephesians 6:10-18) which I will discuss at another time, we can overcome the dark forces of evil. So we need to ready ourselves to do battle with the evil one who tries to inflict dis-ease and terrors in the night.

I’ll leave you with this verse from I John 4:4 ESV): “. . . He (God) who is in you is greater than he (satan) that is in the world.”