Summer Road Trip ‘08
Day Three: Psalm 3:5

“I lay down and slept. I woke in safety for the LORD was watching over me.”

Road Trip or not, sometimes I have a really hard time getting to sleep at night. Contrary to my wife’s advice (stop the Diet Dr Pepper! – which I have actually), it’s usually not the caffeine that’s the culprit, it’s my TOUGHTS. My memory loves to carry on conversations with my consciousness and most of those talks take place while the rest of my body is trying to get horizontal.

Memories usually lead to worries and worries lead to fear. I’m not proud of such thoughts, just preoccupied by them. I seem to have “so many enemies; so many against me…” (Psalm 3:1). My enemies have names like Un-forgiveness, Self-doubt, Overly-concerned, the list is pretty lengthy. It’s easy to believe what they are saying, “God will never rescue him!” (Psalm 3:2).

It’s at those times that Psalm 3:3 is more effective than Sominex or Ambien at bringing a restful sleep. “But you, O LORD, are a shield around me.”

Sometimes the journey gets stressful. There is a calm that comes when I remind myself that God is my Protector; I can call out to Him. So…

“I lay down and slept. I woke up in safety, for the LORD was watching over me.”

All those worries and stresses that were keeping me awake; reality is most of them never came true and for the ones that did, God was still there protecting and watching over me!

Enjoying the Journey!
Pastor Paul