Find a comfortable place and position your body into a place of rest. Spend some time in stillness before God. Like the Psalmist, calm and quiet your soul. Take some deep breaths: breathe in and out a couple of times until your heart rate slows down. Invite and allow God’s presence to be with you. He may have a word for you tonight or just want to be with you. Where are you concerning yourself with “great matters or things too wonderful for” you? Surrender them to God in prayer. After your time of silence, say this prayer:
I, your name forevermore.
, put my hope in the LORD both now and
PREPARING FOR SLEEP As you prepare for bed... let the act of crawling into bed and laying your head on your pillow become an exercise in trusting your whole self—body and soul—to God. As you pull the covers over yourself, imagine that God is putting his arms around you, holding you, covering you with his love. Feel the tiredness in your body and enjoy how good it feels to lie there, invited by God to relax and rest. If cares and concerns surface, trust these to God even as you trust yourself to God. If you wake up in the night, don’t fight your wakefulness; just allow yourself to become aware that you are with God and God is with you, looking on you with love as you rest. In this way, you are still resting your soul as your body is awake. Ruth Haley Barton. Invitation to Retreat. IVP Books (Sept. 18 2018)
15
