Years ago, I started reading a Psalm before I go to bed at night. I started the habit during a particularly fearful time in my life; that habit has stayed with me over the years.
Our Daughter’s Fear
Our daughter, Maggie, has taken up the habit in a slightly different way. She has several verses that she’s written on paper taped to the wall above and around her bed. Most of those verses are taken from Psalms. Every night, she stands next to her bed and reads over those verses before crawling into bed. It’s the only thing that has helped her over the years to be able to calm herself and go to bed at night. She has always had a hard time going to sleep at night and has always been our most fearful child.
Sometimes I forget she does this every night because she does it after I leave her room for the night–after she’s tucked in and prayed with. But she reminded me the other day when we were working on our Scripture memory for school. We started reading our Psalm, and she stopped me. “Mom, I already know this one because it’s one of the verses I read every night before bed.”
Good Habits
Some habits can be really bad and difficult to break, but some habits are freeing and life-giving. Reading or reciting a verse or two from Psalms before bed is a habit that is both of those things. I’ve watched it make a difference in not only my life but also my daughter’s. Sometimes it’s the simplest things in life that make all the difference in the world.
Reasons We Can’t Sleep at Night
There are so many reasons we have a hard time going to sleep at night.
Fear
Worry
Anxiety
Shame and Guilt
Feelings of not enough
Reminders of our failures
A mind that refuses to shut down
An overactive imagination
Drinking too much caffeine
Feeling overwhelmed
Whatever the cause, there are plenty of reasons we have a hard time falling asleep at night. The best way I’ve found to fight back is to calm my mind and my spirit by reading the Psalms. Sometimes it’s just a few verses. Sometimes, it’s a few chapters. Other times, I need to recite a few verses multiple times in my head before I finally drift off to sleep.
If you’re struggling with any of these reasons for not being able to sleep at night, try reading the Psalms. See if it doesn’t make a difference and help give you the peace you need to calm your mind and sleep.
It’s been raining all week here as we’re getting some of the effects of hurricane Debby. Twice in the past week, I’ve gotten caught up in really nasty weather while driving. The first time it was that really hard, driving rain where it’s hard to see anything. I was on my way to Panera to put in some writing time when I get caught in the downpour. The second was on the highway. We got caught in a downpour again; only this time, it turned into a hailstorm.
On the drive to Panera, I almost convinced myself to turn around and go back home. But I just kept going. It took a long time to get there, but I finally made it. I ran inside Panera and dried off and got to work. An hour later, I looked outside, and the sun was out. The storm clouds were gone, and I was really glad I had stuck it out.
The Storms of Life
Storms are not fun, and yet they’re a part of life. Some storms are bigger than others; some cause more damage than others, and no two storms are the same. But there is one thing about storms that always remains the same—they don’t last forever. Every storm, no matter how bad, comes to an end.
In the midst of the storm though, it doesn’t feel like it will end. If you’ve ever gotten stuck in a bad storm, it can be terrifying. Fear tells you to turn around and go home, to run, that it won’t be okay. The fear can twist us up and make us see and feel things that aren’t there; it can also heighten our feelings. And yet, if you just wait it out, the storm will pass…just like the storm when I was at Panera.
Scary Storms
Sometimes, however, the storm is terrifying; and it doesn’t pass quite so easily. We were stuck on the side of the highway for a good fifteen minutes, along with all the other cars and semi-trucks. The hail finally stopped, but there was no sign that the driving rain was going to stop anytime soon. In fact, it was supposed to continue for hours. We had to keep going; we knew we couldn’t just sit on the side of the road for the rest of the night.
We had to pull back onto the highway and continue on, even though we couldn’t see the car in front of us. It was nerve-rattling, but we eventually made it home. The rain didn’t stop that night. In fact, it’s continued all week. It’s a good thing we didn’t wait for the rain to stop, or we’d still be sitting on the side of the road.
Waiting for the Storm to Pass
Some storms last a long time, and if we’re not careful, we will let life pass us by while we’re waiting for the storm to pass. Sometimes, we have to continue on, even in the midst of the storm. It’s not fun, and it’s scary at times. But if we try to wait it out, we might lose days, months, or even years of our lives to the storm. We have to figure out a way to keep going, even in the midst of the storm. We have to choose to keep showing up, keep spending time with God, keep loving, keep serving, and keep choosing joy…even in the midst of the storm.
Seasons of Life
There are seasons for everything in our lives, and that includes trials. The writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us of this.
For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NLT
Storms are just for a Season
Everything has a season, and every season has a time. Storms are a part of a season, and they don’t last forever. The good news is that God makes an end to things. He allows tests and trials into our lives for a time and for a specific purpose. That test will come to an end, and he will strengthen us and place us on a firm foundation.
In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.
I Peter 5:10 NLT
Stand Strong
Are you in a storm right now? Maybe you’re in a series of storms, and it doesn’t seem like the end is anywhere in sight. Don’t let fear make you run. Keep your feet firmly planted in faith. Spend time with God each day; show up to what you have to do. Stay faithful. Because there’s a time coming, maybe in the not-too-distant future when the rain will start to ease up, the clouds will begin to roll back, and the sun will shine brightly once again.
There will be an end to this storm; don’t lose your faith or your testimony in the meantime.
Regret. It’s a word that packs a powerful punch every time we hear it. None of us want to look back on our lives with regret, yet that’s what many of us will face when we come to the end of our lives simply because we let fear keep us from doing what God put in our hearts to do.
So many of us spend too much of our lives on the sidelines wishing, wanting, and hoping instead of jumping into the ring. We dream about the book we long to write, the product that would help so many people, the blog that could make a difference, the small business we know God wants us to start. But fear keeps us back from going after that dream.
The Power of Regret
Danie Pink, the author of several best-sellers including his most recent book, The Power of Regret, collected 16,000 regrets from people in 105 countries. He says that one of the top regrets people have is inaction—not taking a chance.
He posted this picture on social media.
How many of us are living a life we are going to regret one day simply because we have been too fearful to move forward into what God wants us to do?
Reasons We Hold Back
1. We fear what others will think of us.
So often, we let our fear of what others will think hold us back. In reality, most people are too busy living their own life afraid of what others will think of them to worry about what you’re doing. And here’s the deal. So what? What if they don’t approve? What if somebody doesn’t like what you’re doing? It doesn’t matter. Our judgment comes from God. (Proverbs 29:26) It doesn’t matter what others think of us.
2. We think we won’t succeed.
We have this built-in alarm that blares loudly whenever we attempt to do something that is not a guaranteed success. Most of us can’t even allow ourselves to try something unless we are absolutely sure it will succeed. Here’s the thing; you probably will fail. There you go—your encouragement for today. 😁 The fact of the matter is we all fail. Matt and I started a business in 2011 that completely failed. Was it hard? Yes. Discouraging? Yes. But did we learn so much? Yes. Because of that failure, we knew what to do differently for Manney Resources when we launched that business in 2020. We can’t let the fear of failure keep us from trying.
3. It seems like a waste of time, money, and resources.
This one is a hard one. I know what it’s like not to have even a penny to put behind a business, blog, book, product, etc. There are so many ways to get around this. Figure out a way to start without spending any money or little money. It may mean that you don’t have all the bells and whistles when you first start, but start anyway. Just get the ball moving; the money will come in time. If you are doing what God created you to do and fulfilling the purpose he’s given you, then it’s not a waste of time, money, or resources. It’s just the opposite. It’s investing the resources he gave you. When you do that, he can funnel more towards you.
4. It doesn’t seem possible.
If it feels possible, it probably isn’t from God. The thing is that God gives us more than we can handle mostly so that we have to keep returning to him time and again. If God’s given you a big dream, go after it. He will give you the grace and strength for it. On the other hand, even if your dream doesn’t seem huge, go after it anyway. You have no idea what God could do with it once you get started.
5. We don’t think anybody will stand behind what we’re doing.
This is a lie Satan uses to keep us from doing what God wants us to do. I am always amazed at the cheerleaders God sends along the way. Often, it’s not anybody I ever thought of. Somebody sends an email, shares a post, or buys a product and reaches out to me and lets me know how much they appreciated it. It’s usually someone that totally surprises me. Don’t let the thought that nobody will get behind what you’re doing stop you, because you will be surprised. When you step out and start something, people will cheer you on. Will everybody? No. But those that don’t will fall away, and you will find the ones that do.
Choose to Simply Start
There are so many fears that keep us from wanting to move forward on what God has created us to do. We have to turn our back on those fears and just start. Today. There will never be a perfect time. We have to choose to simply start. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, had something to say about this principle in the book of Ecclesiastes.
Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.
Ecclesiastes 11:4 NLT
If you wait for everything to be perfect, you will never start. If you wait for the finances to come in, for the support of others, for the perfect product or manuscript, you won’t ever get started. So push all that away and start. Don’t come to the end of your life and look back with regret simply because you were too fearful to do what God put in your heart to do.
In the Gospels, we read about a storm that took place when Jesus was in the boat with his disciples. He was exhausted from his early mornings and late night ministering to people, so when he got into the boat, he promptly fell asleep. While he slept, a huge storm built and soon wreaked havoc with their boat. It must have been some storm for these seasoned fishermen to be afraid! They wake up Jesus in a panic. “Don’t you care that we’re going to drown?!”
Jesus simply looks out at the wind and the waves and the tempest, and commands it to stop. The storm instantly stops, and the seas become peaceful once again. Then Jesus turns to his disciples. Don’t miss this part; don’t miss what he says when he looks each of them in the eye. He says this, “Why were you so afraid? Do you not have faith?”
Growing Faith that is Stronger than Your Struggle
Those words are still an indictment to us today. The world becomes a chaotic storm around us, and we panic and run to Jesus. “Don’t you know what’s going on? Have you seen what’s happening?! Where are you, God?” God simply looks at us and says, “My beloved child, don’t you have any faith?”
I don’t know about you, but I want to have the faith that Jesus expects me to have. I don’t want to fall apart when the path before me gets a little rocky, when the storms start swelling around me.
Uncertainty, Unrest, and Fear
It seems like everywhere you turn right now, there is unrest, uncertainty, and fear. What do we to combat that? The best way to combat our fear and uncertainty is to double down on our faith. How can we do that? How can we grow our faith?
Well, for our church, that means doing a spiritual growth campaign that is a 40-day booster for our faith. I invite you to join us.
What Is It?
It’s a forty-day study on faith that our church is leading. There are three parts to it.
The Sermon Series. Matt will be preaching every Sunday morning at 11:00 EST a series entitled, Growing Faith that’s Stronger than Your Struggle. You can catch those sermons on our Greater Philly Church Facebook Page. You can watch them live or watch the replay.
Weekly Small Group Study. We will meet in our small groups during the week and work through the accompanying 40 Days of Faith Study Guide. If you are interested, you can snag a copy of the study guide from Amazon and use it to start your own group. There are QR codes inside the study guide for links to the corresponding videos for this series that are free on YouTube.
We all could use something positive to focus on right now. If we can do that and grow in our walk with God at the same time, then that’s a win in my book. I’m looking forward to this study to be able to do just that.
If you want to join in, use the links above to snag a devotional and a study guide, and be sure to check out our Facebook page on Sunday mornings.
If you aren’t really interested in joining us but still want the benefits of the study, I encourage you to grab a devotional and work through it by yourself at home. It will help you grow in your faith these next thirty days and take your focus off of yourself and your circumstances and put your focus back on God.
