How well do you sleep?
by Pastor Mark Gierus
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Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well (Luke 12:25,31).
Read Luke 12:13–31
Are you a member of the 4am club? Perhaps you haven’t heard of it. The club is for those members who regularly wake up around 4am and begin to – well, they say – think of things they need to sort out. In other words, they wake up not by choice but are woken by the worries of this world.
What do people do, then, when they wake up during the night worrying? They either try to get back to sleep – which, if you have ever woken during the night, you will know the more you try to get back to sleep, the more you can’t – or they worry, trying to sort everything out in their life in the space of a few hours.
What if people wake because God has called them to wake? Not to worry, but to pray?
When God woke Samuel by calling his name, Samuel didn’t realise God wanted to talk with him (1 Samuel 3). What if when you wake up in the middle of the night, God wants to speak to you? What if God is calling you to give him all of your worries?
You see, God cares so much that he sent his only Son Jesus to die on the cross for sin, your sin and mine, so as we believe in him, we are forgiven, have eternal life and are saved from sin, eternal death and the power of the devil. God cares so much that he wants to hear about your concerns and worries and to wrap you in his love.
Jesus asks us this: ‘Who of you by worrying can add a single day to your life? … Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?’ If we can’t do that simple thing, to add an hour to our life, which God can – of course – then why do we worry about all of the other things we have no control over?
When you begin to worry, stop, pray and know that as you seek the kingdom or as you call on Jesus first, all of the other things will be sorted out. You have the word of the Lord on that.
Lord, I worry so much about the things I cannot change, and then I worry about how I should have changed them if I could. Help me to stop and be in you by your word of promise that you are always with me. Fill me with your love and peace as I look to you first, knowing that everything I need for this life and the next is mine already in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Mark lives with his two daughters aged 11 and 8 in Redcliffe, just north of Brisbane. He currently serves as a pastor in the LCANZ and is passionate about sharing Jesus’ love with those around him. Pastor Mark loves to travel with his family to see the wonders of God’s creation and meet people who share their stories of what God has done for them.
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