By Chris WittsWednesday 2 Nov 2022Morning Devotions with Chris WittsDevotionsReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
The advertising agency Ogilvy did a study called ‘What’s Keeping Australians up at Night’ and came up with some interesting facts. Maybe you’re one of those lucky people who sleep soundly and don’t suffer from insomnia. But there are many thousands of others who find it difficult to sleep. Their mind races at a hundred miles an hour and the more they try to sleep, the more difficult it becomes. Maybe that’s your experience.
The study revealed our most common concerns are a lack of personal respect for other people, and concern about damage to public property (littering and vandalism) I was fascinated by these results and quite surprised. Almost half of all Australians are highly concerned about preservatives and artificial ingredients in food, obesity, and not exercising enough. That’s just a few of the findings.
But I want to take a look at trying to answer the question “what keeps you awake at night?” from a different angle.
Ever have one of those nights where there was a thousand different things rushing through your head? Or a burden weighing on your heart, and it felt like all you could do was toss and turn your night away, and rest felt impossible?
We live in a very restless culture, do we not?
- we are busy
- we are overcommitted
- we are overworked, and
- we are overstressed.
We have more stuff, material, and wealth than almost any society in history, and with that also comes this incomparable level of tension and stress and worry.
Maybe you’re thinking about it even now, a problem at work or an unresolved conflict in your life. A struggle with an addiction. A serious illness. Maybe it’s a friend or a family member in crisis. Maybe it’s a stack of bills that keeps piling higher or a situation of debt where you feel like you keep sinking deeper. And our hearts slip into this state of a perpetual tossing and turning, making for long nights and very tiresome days.
We work so hard to find rest and peace. It’s a funny paradox, isn’t it? But the truth of the matter is, only God has an answer to the restlessness that we feel.
Jesus put it this way. He said,
“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
We ask ourselves:
- Where is my life going?
- What is going to happen to me tomorrow, or this week, or this month, or this year?
- Will my future turn out the way I hope?
You may have seen the film “Back to the Future”. Michael J. Fox plays a character named Marty McFly. Marty is a teenager living in the year 1985, and Marty travels back in time 30 years in a time machine. And as Marty tries to get back to the future, he inadvertently bumps into his parents before they meet. And he mistakenly messes up the way his parents would meet, and then fall in love, and then have children, which of course, puts his own future existence in jeopardy. And the way the film portrays Marty’s uncertain future is a photograph of his siblings. And you remember what happens in that photograph? The pictures on it slowly disappear throughout the film.
Well, we see Marty rushing around in a near panic, trying to secure this picture of his future, which except for being trapped in the past, is a lot like how many of us live out our lives today.
Each of us has some kind of picture in mind of the future we hope for. Each of us has things we hope our world turns out.
- hope for a home
- hope for some sort of level of financial success
- hope for love and relationship.
- a fulfilling a career
- a level of importance and significance in our lives.
All these things fill out the picture of our future, but we live with this nagging tension and fear that maybe these things are disappearing, or maybe we’ll never even find them. And if we have them, what if we lose them?
Is this what keeps us awake at night? God knows and His very presence can help you rest at night as you trust in His almighty power to work everything out for you.