Rest in His promises

I have not been sleeping well the last few weeks. It is actually one of those ironic things. I am spending my mornings learning and praying about rest, yet I am not sleeping at night. As I sat still this morning and struggled to focus, I realized that my body was tired but my mind was not. I have been waking up every night between 2am and 3am. Every time the last few nights I have woken up with a specific thought about one of my children or something that I had been praying about the day before. I have tried to focus and pray in my nighttime weariness for whatever the thought or fear is. I have been frustrated with myself because I just get more anxious or fall back asleep or get up and do something else besides talk to the Lord.


Last night, I woke up thinking about a decision that one of my daughter's has to make. I know what I want her to do. I know what she wants to do. I have an idea of what God's answer would be. I woke up with it all racing through my mind. As I lay there trying to pray for the situation and just wanting desperately to fall back asleep, it occurred to me that I was trying to impose my thoughts and opinions into a situation that already had answers. No, I do not know how this will turn out or what decision will be made but I do know what He has promised concerning my daughter.


Over the last few years, I have begun to mark verses and passages in my Bible as I prayed for one of my girls or a friend or a circumstance in my life. I mark the verse with the date and the name. I try and journal the prayer request or the situation but I am not very good at that. So, I have names and dates all over my Bible next to verses and scriptures. This morning as I looked through the ones with my daughters name on them, I realized that there was an answer in every verse I read for the decision she is making now. Some of the dates were four years ago. But the promises still ring true for today. As I learn to let my mind rest in the Truth that I have read and allow that Truth to be received in my heart, my body will receive the rest it needs too.


The promises are all there. Just waiting for me to discover them over and over again. That is the beauty of God's Word. Not only is it truth but it is new every morning. His Word does not change but it continues to change us. His promises are yes and Amen. I can rest in that promise!

Whatever God has promised gets stamped 

with the Yes of Jesus. In Him, this is what we preach 

and pray, the great Amen, God's Yes and our Yes together, 

gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us 

a sure thing in Christ, putting His Yes within us. 

By His Spirit he has stamped us 

with His eternal pledge—a sure beginning 

of what He is destined to complete. 

2 Corinthians 1:20 the message