prayer for sleeplessness |

Take no thought for tomorrow

Overcoming, Relationship with God / Tom Stuart

Recently I was having one of those sleepless nights that everyone can identify with, when I was obsessing about some challenges I was facing in the week ahead. Thankfully it is an infrequent occurrence. But no matter how hard I tried or fervently I prayed I could not lay my nagging concerns to rest so I could finally get some rest. I was so frustrated that I was even resenting the moonlight shining through my bedroom window, viewing it as a source of irritation and contributing factor to my insomnia.

But then as a passing cloud shaded the full moon’s light I caught a glimpse of the starry sky. I really cannot explain it, but at that moment, resonating out of the vastness of the universe and the knowledge that the one who created it also created and cared for me, were the words “take no thought for tomorrow.” It was not something dramatic like an audible voice or startling revelation or some angelic appearance or intervention. It was more like the sense and satisfaction a person has when they solve a math problem or discover an important fact they have been looking for. It just settles things and arms a person with the truth that allows them to move on.

When that phrase ‘take no thought for tomorrow” came to me it was like, “Oh yeah, I can do that. If the creator of the universe is telling me to take no thought, then why waste time taking thought.” And right then and there I decided to stop thinking and worrying about the morrow, laid all my anxious thoughts aside and within minutes was asleep.

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The prayer antidote for anxiety

The high-stress, fast-paced lifestyle in which we live is the source of many forms of anxiety. In today’s world, finding rest for the soul is a premium pursuit. My very informal survey has revealed that there are at least twelve categories of things that cause anxiety and keep people awake at night. I formulated the list by looking at a variety of websites conveying research and discussions related to causes of insomnia. For simplicity’s sake I chose not to include physical, medical or dietary reasons for sleeplessness on the list.

In the process of analyzing the causes of anxiety and looking for antidotes I made an amazing discovery. There is actually one prayer in the Bible that addresses every single aspect of these anxiety producing thoughts and fears.

It is God’s prescriptive cure summed up in just five simple verses. Fittingly, it comes from the teaching of Jesus who is the only one who can ultimately give us rest for our souls. The prescription for anxiety induced insomnia is the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray which we call the Lord’s Prayer. It is found in Matthew 11:9-13.