Give It to God and Go To Bed Sample

Outside Your Window and Inside Your Head

Sometimes you can create the perfect refuge in your bedroom, will yourself to bed and master all your monsters, yet you still can’t get to sleep. The reason is that sometimes the chaos that keeps you awake once you crawl into bed continues, either outside your window or inside your head. You see things on the news, or you read things on social media that create a political or cultural theatre far more disturbing than entertaining. And you may not have a lot of control over what goes on outside your window—but you can still worry if you so choose, letting it steal your peaceful rest.

Try using God-given dreams and prayers at night to deal with that world outside your window. This will help you feel less fearful as night falls. It’s also important to watch your words both day and night, on social media and elsewhere. Don’t pray for peace and then make war with your conversations! Often it’s wise to put down those electronic devices at bedtime. Their glowing light hits your optic nerve and cues your pineal gland to stop producing melatonin. Melatonin is the drowsy hormone, and without it you’ll never go to sleep. Instead use that time to ask God for direction (even in your dreams) and pray for whatever is going on outside your window.

Inside your head, certain voices might keep clamoring for your attention. It can be hard to shut them off, even after you switch off the lights. You have to choose which one to pay attention to as you lay yourself to rest. The only voice that matters belongs to the One who has promised you His peace.

The other voices probably include your own discouraging self-talk and the voices of the skeptics, those naysayers without the heart to see you succeed in your calling or purpose. When the voice keeping you awake is your own, it’s time to silence the inner critic. The only way to do that is to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, as Romans 12:2 tells us. Replace negative self-talk with God’s mind-transforming words about His love and care for you. As for the naysayers, it’s imperative that you become convinced of who God says you are, so other voices cannot change your mind. Knowing God’s voice is knowing peaceful sleep.