Participants:
Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000023S
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00:00 - My guess is you're not likely sleeping enough,
00:02 and I'm also guessing you'd probably like 00:04 to sleep a little more. 00:06 And the reason I know that is because you're probably living 00:09 the Western average when it comes to sleep. 00:11 Experts say you should be getting eight hours a night, 00:13 but something like 2/3 of us, 00:15 aren't getting anywhere near that much. 00:18 Me, most nights, four, five hours, maybe. 00:21 So if you're feeling a little exhausted, 00:23 you might wanna prop your eyelids open and stick around 00:25 because today I'm gonna take a look at 00:27 one of the most fundamental skills we need 00:29 to live in authentic existence, 00:31 the ability to just turn everything off. 00:34 [light music] 00:55 I don't know how the average night goes for you, 00:57 but lemme tell you how it happens for me. 01:00 The older I get the earlier I want to go to bed 01:04 and years ago, I used to make fun of my grandparents 01:07 because they liked to have a cup of cocoa at about 8:30, 01:11 and by nine o'clock, lights out. 01:14 Now, 40 years ago, that seemed to me 01:16 like such an old person thing to do. 01:19 Now, however, in my sixth decade of life, 8:30, 01:22 well, that's starting to look pretty good. 01:25 So if I'm not out traveling, if I'm not speaking somewhere, 01:28 that's exactly what I do, 8:30 bedtime, 01:32 but no matter how early I get in bed, 01:34 I still lie there wide awake for two or three hours 01:39 before I even begin to feel a little bit drowsy. 01:42 And I know what some of you are thinking, you're thinking, 01:44 well, why didn't you just get up earlier 01:46 in the morning, Shawn, 01:47 and then you'll be more tired at bedtime at night? 01:49 But I do. 01:51 I mean, it's a pretty rare day when I'm not awake 01:53 by four something in the morning or five something 01:55 at the very latest and I walk about seven miles a day, 01:59 I almost never eat in the evening 02:01 and I never drink caffeine and still it takes me 02:04 at least two or three hours to fall asleep at night. 02:09 And I think one of the biggest problems I've got 02:11 is the fact that I can't seem to turn the world off 02:15 because how do you just stop thinking about stuff? 02:19 I mean, how do you stop thinking about 02:21 what happened during the day 02:22 and how do you stop working on the problems 02:24 that still need to be solved? 02:27 And if there's some kinda crisis going on 02:29 and you know there's always some kinda crisis, 02:32 well, then I can't stop thinking about that. 02:35 So I promise you, I am easily one of the most 02:38 sleep deprived people on the face of the planet. 02:42 And while you might not be 02:43 as radically sleep impaired as I am, 02:46 the national average tells me that 2/3 of you 02:50 are squeaking by on not enough sleep. 02:54 And I don't need to tell you, 02:55 that is gonna catch up with you in the long run. 02:57 I don't wanna scare you, 02:59 man, maybe I wanna scare you just a little bit, 03:01 but not getting enough sleep seems to be 03:03 a key factor among people who develop Alzheimer's. 03:07 Just a little bit of sleep deprivation 03:09 makes your blood sugar look like you're pre-diabetic 03:13 and it contributes to things like coronary heart disease, 03:16 stroke, depression, and anxiety. 03:19 And now that I've drawn your attention to that, 03:21 I guess this show might also be 03:23 a contributing factor for anxiety. 03:26 Here's the weird thing about it, 03:28 for all the advancement we've made in medical science, 03:31 one of the biggest mysteries we continue to face is 03:34 how sleep works. 03:36 I mean, if you think about it, 03:37 sleep is a really weird thing. 03:40 Most people spend roughly a third of their lives 03:43 completely unconscious, immobilized, defenseless. 03:48 And for those of you who might subscribe 03:50 to the theory of evolution, 03:52 going to sleep doesn't make a lot of sense because, 03:55 well, what advantage could you possibly have for survival 03:58 if you're out cold a third of your life? 04:02 I mean, theoretically sleeping animals are a late night 04:05 all you can eat buffet for night prowling carnivores. 04:08 So I'm not sure it makes a whole lot of sense. 04:12 So why in the world do we sleep? 04:15 Now, there are all kinds of books out there 04:17 that try to explain it, 04:18 and because I'm such a horrible sleeper, 04:20 I've spent a lot of time waiting through 04:23 the sleep literature, and what we do know about sleep, 04:27 well, it's pretty fascinating 04:28 and because this isn't a science show, 04:30 I won't bore you with all of the data except to say 04:34 that sleep appears to be one of the last frontiers 04:37 of scientific discovery. 04:39 I mean, what exactly is your brain doing 04:42 when you're lying there drooling on your pillow? 04:45 Well, here's what we do know, 04:47 we know that the body does repairs while you're sleeping, 04:50 which might be one of the reasons we seem to crave 04:53 more bedrest when we're feeling a little ill. 04:56 And we know that your brain isn't completely inactive 04:59 when you're sleeping because, 05:00 well, you spend a good chunk of the night dreaming, 05:04 which appears to be the brain's way 05:06 of cleaning up your hard drive. 05:08 It takes new memories from the day you just experienced 05:11 and it finds a place to store them in your longterm memory, 05:15 and then it works on cleaning up the neural connections 05:17 that you no longer need. 05:19 So you might think of it as defragging your hard drive 05:23 and the stuff you can learn from dreaming, 05:26 well, that's absolutely fascinating. 05:28 I mean, have you ever wondered why it is 05:30 when you're fast asleep, you'll suddenly remember things 05:33 from your childhood that you haven't remembered in years, 05:37 and it will be all mixed in with stuff 05:38 that happened today or this past week? 05:41 It's almost like your brain is taking 05:44 all that stuff from right now, 05:46 and it's looking for a place to store it, 05:48 some kinda hook to hang it on, 05:50 and that hook might be a very old childhood memory. 05:56 You know, when they study your brain waves 05:57 as you're dreaming, at some points, 06:00 it almost looks like you're wide awake. 06:02 I mean, it looks like a big chaotic mess of signals, 06:05 neurons firing all over the place everywhere in your brain. 06:09 And if your brain wasn't wired 06:11 to paralyze you while you're dreaming, 06:13 you'd probably act out your dreams and really hurt yourself. 06:17 You be getting up and moving around in the dark, 06:19 smashing into things, walking off ledges, trying to fly, 06:22 or whatever else it is you happen to be dreaming about. 06:26 That's what happens during rapid eye movement 06:30 when your brain is highly active 06:32 and it produces measurable brainwaves, 06:34 and this goes on about every 90 minutes 06:37 while you're sleeping. 06:39 But there's another part of sleep 06:41 and I don't wanna freak you out too much, 06:44 but there's another part of sleep 06:45 when you're almost not there at all. 06:47 They call it NREM or non-rapid eye movement, 06:52 and this is what's going on in your brain between dreams 06:56 mostly during the first hours of the night. 07:00 Non-rapid eye movement is this moment in your brain 07:03 when you are absolutely unconscious, 07:06 you are receiving no outside stimuli. 07:09 And how it happens is really pretty weird. 07:13 Right behind your forehead, 07:15 right here at the top of your face, 07:16 just below where your hair used to be when you were 20, 07:19 your brain starts sending out deep, slow waves 07:23 of information and it radiates from the front 07:26 all the way back through your brain, 07:28 but it doesn't go equally in every direction, 07:31 it travels from the front of your brain to the back, 07:34 kind of like having a tiny little speaker mounted at 07:37 the front of your skull, that's pointed directly backwards. 07:40 And when these slow deep waves begin to pulse, 07:44 well, the weirdest thing happens, 07:47 usually the various parts of your brain are firing off 07:49 at the same time creating what looks like chaos because 07:53 all the various information centers of your mind 07:55 are just doing their own thing, 07:56 almost independent of each other, 07:59 but when this deep non-rapid eye movement happens, 08:02 it's like all the cells in your brain hear 08:05 the music from that tiny speaker at the front, 08:08 they all stop what the they're doing, 08:10 and they all fall in line 08:12 and join the pulsations from the front, 08:15 kinda like billions of little obedient cult members 08:18 chanting together. 08:20 It's almost like a bad science fiction movie 08:23 from the 1950s were a bunch of body snatchers 08:26 have taken over the brains of earthlings 08:28 and when the mothership sends out an eerie noise, 08:31 everybody stops what they're doing, 08:32 they all face in the same direction 08:34 and begin chanting the same note. 08:37 And what appears to be happening is that the brain cells, 08:41 the neurons, they're all firing off in slow, steady unison, 08:47 and the brain appears to be connecting 08:49 the various regions of the brain and harmonizing them. 08:53 And from what I understand, 08:54 this is when you're actually storing your memories 08:57 and cleaning them up, all the parts of the brain 09:00 start talking to each other and cooperating, 09:03 and then when that's finished, you start dreaming again. 09:07 So from what I can tell sleep is pretty important 09:10 for your mental wellbeing. 09:12 And maybe this is why we have so much trouble focusing, 09:15 you know, connecting the dots when we're sleep deprived, 09:18 and maybe it's why we have trouble performing delicate tasks 09:22 or giving a speech or forming coherent sentences 09:26 when we haven't slept in days, 09:28 the brain just hasn't had a chance to clean itself up, 09:33 but then suddenly you get a good night's sleep, 09:36 and now you're on top of the world 09:37 and you can remember things 09:39 and you have an easier time just living. 09:43 Now, I've gotta take a quick break, 09:44 so go and do what you need to do, 09:46 maybe take a quick nap for your brain's sake 09:48 and I'll be right back. 09:53 - [Announcer] Are you searching for answers 09:54 to life's toughest questions like, 09:56 where is God when we suffer? 09:58 Can I find real happiness? 10:00 Or is there any hope for our chaotic world? 10:03 The Discover Bible guides will help you find 10:05 the answers you're looking for. 10:07 Visit us at biblestudies.com, 10:10 or give us a call at 888-456-7933 10:15 for your free Discover Bible guides, 10:17 study online on our secure website, 10:20 or have the free guides mailed right to your home. 10:23 There is never a cost or obligation. 10:26 The Discover Bible guides are our free gift to you. 10:29 Find answers in guides like 10:30 "Does My Life Really Matter to God?" 10:32 and " A Second Chance at Life". 10:35 You'll find answers to the things that matter most to you 10:37 in each of the 26 Discover Bible guides, 10:40 visit Biblestudies.com and begin your journey today 10:44 to discover answers to life's deepest questions. 10:53 - Our fascination with the phenomenon of sleep dates back 10:57 a really, really long time. 11:01 Back in the ancient world, the Egyptians, 11:03 or at least the wealthy ones who had spare time 11:06 and education, they would carefully write down their dreams 11:10 because they were pretty sure the dreams meant something. 11:14 The same was true of the ancient Assyrians, 11:16 who based their capital in the city of Nineveh. 11:19 So when we went excavating Nineveh 11:21 toward the end of the 19th century, 11:23 we suddenly discovered the library 11:25 of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, 11:28 and what we found was a significant number of books 11:31 that dealt with the interpretation of dreams. 11:34 And what really surprised us in those books is the fact 11:38 that those ancient writings said the very same things 11:42 as those dream interpretation books 11:44 you can find in the new age section of a bookstore today, 11:48 because it seems while the original writings 11:50 were buried in the rubble of Nineveh, 11:53 there were other copies made, 11:55 that made their way all over the world 11:58 and medieval Europeans had those ancient ideas 12:01 and they stole them. 12:02 And today all books about dream interpretation 12:05 are based on that European plagiarism of very ancient ideas. 12:11 But I'm getting off subject a little bit. 12:13 We all know instinctively that sleep is really good for you, 12:17 and we've known that since the beginning 12:19 of recorded history, 12:21 the problem is that most of us aren't doing it right 12:24 and it's taking a toll on our physical health, 12:27 and it's taking a toll on our mental health 12:30 and we're starting to pay a really big price to the point 12:34 where I actually wonder with all of the political unrest 12:37 and all the protests in the street 12:39 and the way that people ruthlessly attack each other online 12:42 every single day and we seem to be losing our civility, 12:45 well, I wonder how much of that would go away 12:48 or at least calm down if we just got enough rest. 12:53 I mean, I don't mean to minimize the problems because 12:55 this is certainly not the panacea, it's not the solution, 12:58 but I do find myself wondering if it's not a factor. 13:01 If we're all sleep deprived, 13:02 or we're behaving badly at least in part because of that? 13:06 Now, before I go any further, lemme just say this, 13:08 I kinda knew I'd be taking a risk by going public 13:11 with my own insomnia today because, 13:14 well, every time I get on air and say, 13:15 "Here's what's wrong in my life," 13:17 I start getting all kinds of helpful letters in the mail. 13:21 And I know people mean well, 13:23 you know, they wanna help me solve the problem, 13:25 but honestly I don't want the letters, 13:27 I don't need any solutions because believe me, 13:30 I live a very happy existence 13:31 and I've already explored every known alternative 13:35 for getting a better night's sleep, all of them. 13:37 I've been to sleep labs, I've tried supplements, 13:41 cold showers before bed, 13:43 I've done everything that has ever been tried, 13:46 and there's one thing I've discovered 13:48 that does work better than anything else. 13:52 And even though I'm far from conquering 13:54 the problem of sleeplessness completely, 13:56 there's something I have found that has made life, 13:59 well, a whole lot better, 14:01 something that was written thousands of years ago. 14:06 It's found in the Book of Psalms, 14:08 and maybe I'll just take a minute 14:10 and read some of this to you. 14:11 If you happen to have a Bible at your house, 14:14 maybe go and get it so that you can follow along. 14:16 I mean, I'm gonna put the verses here on the screen for you, 14:19 but it's always good to see it for yourself 14:22 in the pages of your own Bible. 14:23 So here we go now, Psalm 4. 14:27 Now the language here might be a little bit archaic 14:30 and the author may have lived like 3,000 years ago, 14:34 but I want you to notice that 14:35 not a whole lot has changed in 3,000 years. 14:39 So we're gonna parse this pretty carefully 14:41 and spend a bit of time waiting through 14:43 what I think is some really good information. 14:46 This Psalm, Psalm 4 was written by a guy 14:49 who couldn't sleep. 14:50 And the reason he couldn't sleep was because, 14:52 well, he had problems. 14:54 So even if you don't find all the answers 14:56 you're looking for right now, you can still take heart 14:59 that many other people have lived through this. 15:01 And I think you'll find that what this guy says 15:04 is a pretty good starting point 15:05 for finding a little more peace of mind. 15:08 So here we go now, Psalm 4, starting in verse one. 15:12 He writes, 15:13 "Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! 15:16 "You have relieved me in my distress, 15:18 "have mercy on me, and hear my prayer." 15:23 Now, I don't know what kinda problems you're dealing with, 15:26 and I have no idea if you're a religious person or not, 15:29 but I'm guessing that at some point 15:31 you have cried out to God in the quiet hours of the night. 15:34 Now, maybe you don't believe there is a God 15:36 or even like the idea of God, but I'm telling you, 15:39 the odds are at some point at two in the morning, 15:41 you have knocked on His door 15:43 when you're at the end of your rope. 15:46 So here's what's going on with this passage. 15:49 You've got a guy who did everything right, 15:51 he lives a righteous life. 15:52 He's a good man and he tries hard, 15:54 but his life is still full of problems. 15:57 This is why he refers to the Creator 16:00 as the God of my righteousness. 16:02 He's basically appealing to God saying, 16:04 listen, you know I'm down here trying, 16:07 you know my cause is righteous 16:09 and I'm doing all the right things, 16:10 so would you please, please just listen to me. 16:15 Now, if I'm perfectly honest, 16:16 I'll have to admit I've been here more than once. 16:19 I might be an ordained minister, 16:20 I might have credentials in my wallet that say 16:23 I'm a member of the clergy, but I've got to tell you, 16:26 that does nothing but make me anything but human. 16:31 I know a lot of the preachers on TV right now will tell you 16:34 that following God is some kind of a ticket to easy street, 16:37 but I gotta tell you that's not true. 16:39 I don't mind admitting to you, 16:41 I have personally hit the breaking point 16:43 more than once in my life. 16:45 I have come to the point where I know that if one more thing 16:49 in my life goes sideways, I'm probably gonna snap. 16:53 And the reason I'm telling you this is because 16:55 that's where this Psalm is coming from, 16:57 this is a guy at the end of his rope. 16:59 He's running out of ideas, he has no more solutions, 17:03 so he's wide awake in bed and he takes his case to God 17:06 and his problems stem from the way other people 17:09 are treating him, 17:11 which is something I know you've experienced that too. 17:15 It's pretty much a part of everybody's life. 17:18 So he's talking to God, 17:19 and then he turns and talks to the people 17:21 who are bothering him in verse two. 17:23 "How long,' he says to them, 17:25 "O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? 17:28 "How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? 17:31 "But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself 17:35 "him who is godly, the Lord will hear when I call to Him." 17:41 So he's looking at the people who live around him, 17:43 the people who are doing life well wrong, 17:46 and he's contemplating the difference. 17:48 Those people are dishonest, 17:50 they're wasting their lives doing ungodly things, 17:53 but on the outside their lives seem like 17:55 it's going pretty good. 17:57 And it's tempting to wanna be those other people 17:59 because it looks like their life is easier, 18:02 but then the psalmist reminds himself that 18:04 because he has chosen the righteous life, 18:06 because he wants to live in harmony with Almighty God, 18:10 he's actually got the ear of the Creator of the universe. 18:13 In the quiet hours of the night when he seems 18:15 to be alone with his problems, 18:17 he suddenly remembers that God actually hears him. 18:21 And in light of that, 18:23 he comes up with some really good advice, 18:25 and this personally is where I've found a few keys 18:27 to solving my own anxious sleeplessness. 18:29 I mean, listen to this in verse four, it says, 18:32 "Be angry and do not sin." 18:35 Now, in the original language, 18:36 it's more like be agitated and do not sin. 18:40 "Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still." 18:45 So the first thing he does is acknowledge 18:47 that he's agitated, 18:49 and instead of wallowing in that emotion, 18:51 he gives himself permission to step aside 18:53 and think about it. 18:55 And what that does is let you step outside of yourself 18:58 and get a new perspective on the problem. 19:00 You put aside the deeply personal nature 19:02 of your problems for just a few minutes 19:04 and you start to look at them rationally, 19:06 almost like there's someone else's problems 19:09 and you're helping them think it through. 19:12 And I don't know if you've ever noticed this, 19:13 but somebody else's problems, 19:15 they don't make you anywhere near as anxious as your own, 19:19 and you can gain a far better degree of objectivity. 19:22 So the first key is to take your problems 19:25 and pretend that you're helping somebody else. 19:28 Now, I've gotta take another quick break 19:30 and I'll be right back with a few more keys 19:32 to help you with your problems. 19:36 - [Announcer] Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 19:37 we're committed to creating top quality programming 19:39 for the whole family, 19:41 like our audio adventure series Discovery Mountain. 19:44 Discovery Mountain is a Bible based program 19:46 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 19:49 Your family will enjoy the faith building stories 19:52 from this small mountain summer camp, Penn town 19:54 with 24 seasonal episodes every year 19:57 and fresh content every week. 19:59 There's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 20:06 - Okay, we're in Psalm 4, where the author gives 20:08 himself permission to just be agitated. 20:12 And he determines at the same time 20:14 that he's not going to sin. 20:16 He's not gonna behave badly because of his problems, 20:19 and then he chooses to stay in bed and think things through. 20:22 He meditates on the problem, 20:24 almost as if he's working on it for somebody else. 20:27 And I know that's easier said than done, 20:29 but let's keep reading, verse five now, it says, 20:33 "Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, 20:36 "and put your trust in the Lord." 20:39 So here's what he's doing, he's making a choice. 20:42 He has the right to be agitated, 20:45 he has the right to be frustrated, 20:47 but at the same time, he makes a choice. 20:49 His response to frustration is not going to violate 20:53 the principles of righteousness. 20:55 He's not gonna let a little setback 20:57 pull him off the righteous path. 20:58 And because of the Bible is a very honest book, 21:01 he mentions that taking that step means trusting. 21:06 I mean, when you're dealing with panicky thoughts 21:08 in the middle of the night, 21:09 it's tempting to take the easy way out, 21:10 it's tempting to just do the wrong thing, 21:12 to get the problem off your plate, 21:15 but no matter how bad things get, you still have a choice, 21:18 even when you don't feel like you do, 21:21 because no matter what you're facing, 21:22 you can still consciously choose to trust 21:25 that God will handle it. 21:28 So on a personal note, here's what I do, 21:30 I keep a note pad or an iPad right beside my bed 21:33 and when those middle of the night anxieties 21:35 begin to torture me, I simply write them down. 21:38 And what I'm doing is taking the position 21:40 that I am God's child. 21:42 So these are really God's problems 21:45 and then we discuss those problems together. 21:47 Let's say the roof on my house is leaking, so I say, 21:49 Lord, this is your house, not mine 21:52 and you know I don't have the money to fix this problem, 21:54 but you have all the resources in the world 21:56 so I'm gonna leave it with you 21:58 and I will be your property manager. 22:01 So what I'm doing is working on the problem 22:03 like I'm helping somebody else, 22:05 and now it no longer looks like the massive threat 22:08 that it used to be. 22:10 And when you take that position, 22:11 you'd be surprised how often a solution suddenly shows up 22:14 because you got out of the way and you let God take over. 22:20 Now, my instinct is to get up at two in the morning 22:22 and implement the solution right away, 22:24 but that's not rational thinking, 22:26 so I take the pad and I write it down. 22:28 And just the act of writing out a potential solution 22:31 or even several potential solutions, 22:33 well, that really leases my mind from worry 22:36 because when I get up the next morning 22:38 I'm still gonna remember the discussion I had with God. 22:41 Let's continue now in verse six, it says, 22:44 "There are many who say, 22:45 "'Who will show us any good?' 22:47 "Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us." 22:53 Now we should probably come back to that statement 22:55 in another episode on another day because 22:56 this is particularly true of the world 22:58 we live in right now, people are actually giving up hope 23:01 that the world has good and honest people anymore, 23:03 because no matter who we elect or who we trust, 23:06 we just get disappointed again and again and again, 23:09 but I'll save that for another day. 23:11 And what I want you to notice for now is that one solution 23:14 to anxiety and sleeplessness is a determination 23:18 that you could be a light for other people. 23:20 You could become the solution for somebody else's anxiety, 23:24 because I promise you, you're not the only one 23:26 who tosses and turns and wonders if God is still out there. 23:30 So when God shines His light on you, 23:32 you need to become determined to shine it on somebody else 23:35 and become a solution for their sleeplessness, 23:38 and imagine the world would live in if more of us did that. 23:42 Okay, verse seven, because we are going run out of time. 23:45 That happens to me every week. 23:46 Verse seven, 23:48 "You have put gladness in my heart, 23:50 "more than in the season that their grain 23:53 "and wine increased." 23:55 I don't you want you to miss this because the psalmist, 23:58 what he just did was choose to accept the gladness 24:02 or joy that comes from knowing that God hears you. 24:04 And he says that knowing that is worth more 24:07 than having all the wealth in the world. 24:09 Other people appear to have a problem free existence, 24:13 but the psalmist has something better 24:14 than a problem free existence, he has God. 24:19 I mean you and I both know 24:21 that money doesn't really solve problems anyway. 24:23 Being richer only means having bigger headaches, 24:26 and trust me, wealthy people lie awake at night too. 24:29 An a massive bank account can disappear 24:31 with one financial crisis, it can all go in a single day, 24:36 but knowing the Creator, 24:38 knowing there's a God that listens to you, 24:40 nobody can take that from you 24:42 and it's worth more than anything else in the world. 24:46 Okay, one last break and then the big finish. 24:52 - [Announcer] Life can throw a lot at us. 24:54 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 24:58 but that's where the Bible comes in, 25:00 it's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 25:03 Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 25:05 we've created the Discover Bible guides 25:07 to be your guide to the Bible. 25:08 They're designed to be simple, easy to use, 25:11 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 25:14 and they're absolutely free. 25:16 So jump online now, or give us a call 25:18 and start your journey of discovery. 25:22 - [Narrator] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues, 25:26 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 25:31 If you've ever read Daniel or Revelation 25:33 and come away scratching your head, you're not alone. 25:36 Our free focus on prophecy guides are designed 25:39 to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 25:41 and deepen your understanding of God's plan for you 25:44 and our world. 25:45 Study online or request them by mail 25:48 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 25:52 - Okay, we're back, and we're reading from Psalm 4 25:55 and it's time for the big finish now in verse eight. 25:58 it says, 25:59 "I will both lie down in peace and sleep, 26:02 "for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." 26:09 Now here's what I want you to take away from this 26:10 and it's profoundly simple, 26:12 you have a choice. 26:14 You can choose to lie down in peace, 26:17 you can choose to sleep because now you understand 26:21 that you're just a manager, a groundskeeper, 26:23 a person who handles the business affairs 26:25 of an Almighty, an all powerful God. 26:29 So if your life belongs to Him, that means, 26:31 well, your problems belong to Him too 26:34 and He's got the means to solve them. 26:38 Now, I wish I could tell you I was doing this perfectly, 26:40 I'm not, this is something I'm still working on myself, 26:43 but just reading this passage 26:45 and asking for the peace of knowing that God heard me, 26:49 and then choosing consciously to believe that God 26:53 really did hear my plea at two in the morning, 26:56 well, I gotta tell you, it's starting to work. 27:00 This is something that you've got to practice 27:01 and you do have to keep making decisions every single day, 27:06 but every single day, it gets just a little bit better. 27:09 and yeah, I still have lots of sleepless nights, 27:13 but I'll tell you this much, 27:14 it's a really good thing to understand 27:17 that you are not alone at two in the morning, 27:19 and there really is someone out there listening, 27:22 and it all begins with the choice to believe 27:26 and then a daily choice to keep believing. 27:31 I'm Shawn Boonstra, you've been watching Authentic. 27:35 [light music] |
Revised 2021-09-09