Does your to-do list keep you up at night?

It’s hard to fall asleep when your brain keeps cycling through all the things that need to get done tomorrow. Or is it your guilt that keeps you awake – guilt about all the things you should’ve done today but didn’t. Or are you’re thinking about how you behaved that day – as a parent or a kid or an employee or a student? Or is it the bills sitting on the counter? Or the project at work? Or the ____________?

Peace is hard to come by these days. But God offers a peace that’s better than any peace we could wish for.

It’s not just peace from a long to-do list or the mental load of each day. And it’s not just a peaceful feeling. It’s a spiritual status that you have through faith in Jesus as your Savior. With his perfect life and death, Jesus removed our sins that once made us enemies with God. We are at peace, like two countries that have signed a treaty. It’s not a feeling. It’s a status. And it’s a status that we couldn’t earn for ourselves but is given to us freely through faith.

That peace allows you to lie down and sleep, because it’s not just about physical or mental safety. It’s a spiritual safety that comes from knowing that your eternity is secure through the blood of your Savior Jesus. So go get some sleep, knowing that the biggest things are covered, and everything else will sort itself out.

In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety. -Psalm 4:8

Keep the Conversation Going

Questions for Younger Kids:

• What are some things that make it hard for you to fall asleep at night?
• Who is watching over you when you go to sleep, even when you can’t see or feel him?
• Because Jesus has made peace between us and God, what can we do at bedtime instead of worrying?

Questions for Older Kids:

• What kinds of worries or thoughts tend to keep people awake at night and which ones do you relate to most?
• The devotion says peace with God is a status, not a feeling. Why is that an important difference when our emotions don’t feel peaceful?
• How does knowing that Jesus has secured your eternity change the way you think about tomorrow before you fall asleep?