You have asked the Father to dissolve all thoughts of stress and anxiety and bring you peaceful sleep. That is a prayer He loves to answer, for He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. Long before you cried to Him, He had already given sleep as a common mercy, the tired labourer knows it, the little child knows it, and you, worn thin by the press of many cares, may know it too. But there is a deeper sleep He gives to His beloved, a rest not merely of the body but of the soul, a quieting of the inward storm. That is what you truly crave, and that is what Jesus Christ delights to bestow.
The thoughts will come crowding at the bedside, will they not? One care elbows another, and they all cry out at once for your attention. You are pressed, and then you are worried. It seems as though you must stay awake to untangle them all, and yet the more you turn them over, the more tangled they become. You are like a ship caught in a squall, and all the while there is a voice upon the waters saying, “Peace, be still.” Hear it now. Jesus does not lay His hand upon the storm as if He were far away; He stands in the vessel with you, and if He is aboard, the water outside cannot harm you. The danger begins only when it gets inside. So this is the indoor work He invites you to do: not to chase every anxious thought, not to conquer every difficulty in the strength of your own weary mind, but to let your heart be untroubled because He is near. To do the will of Jesus, simply to trust Him, to cast the burden upon Him, this is rest. What you cannot do, leave to Him. The impossible is not your province.
And then sleep will come as a gift. You need not rise up early and sit up late, eating the bread of sorrows. God gives to His beloved sleep. He does not limit it to the rich or the noble; it is the portion of every child who nestles under His wing. Think of how a father’s hand in the dark quiets a child who has been frightened by a dream. You are that child, and your Father’s hand is upon you now. The Lord Jesus calls you to come to Him, you who labour and are heavy laden, and He will give you rest. Not a cold, far-off rest, but the rest a weary head finds upon a pillow, simple, real, and meant for this very night.
May the peace that passes understanding garrison your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. May the Lord Himself, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, keep watch over your bed, dissolving every anxious thought as the morning sun melts the frost. May you lie down in the green pastures of His care, and wake refreshed, with a song in your heart, for you have slept as one beloved of the Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.