"In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."
Psalm 4:8
Early on in our travels I learned something that has taken me through more scary situations than I can count.
We didn’t have much. In fact, everything we owned was packed into a Ford Pinto “hatchback“ and we were staying in the cheapest hotel in a not very nice part of a strange city, because that was where we were and it was what our budget allowed. I knew that cars were often broken into and things stolen from them in that parking lot at night and worrying about that was keeping me awake.
Every time a car door opened outside I wondered if it was mine, and there were a lot of car doors opening and closing. I desperately needed to sleep because we had a long, 12-hour drive ahead of us the next day.
Finally, it struck me that we were where we were because God had called us to be there, and everything we owned was really His, not ours. So I prayed, “Okay, Lord; it’s all Yours. I proclaim Your name over that car and everything in it. No one can touch it without Your permission. Do whatever You want with it. I’m going to sleep.”
The next day the car was still there and nothing was missing. I learned night after night to do that; turn it all over to the Lord and go to sleep, and not just the car but everything.
It was maybe thirty years before our car was actually broken into and that time it was parked on the street in front of our house. We lost a few things that I would have preferred to keep, but it was the Lord’s stuff anyway, not mine.
By that time we had learned that our life itself belongs to the Lord. He can do with us what He will, and knowing that, we can rest. He has taken care of us in war zones, cold and hot, disease-ridden areas and epidemics, threats on our life and property, and He watches over us today.
We take normal precautions and try not to do anything stupid. We lock our doors at night and so on. But we know, “My times are in Thy hands,” and Jesus is Lord, so we can rest.
Lord Jesus, You have bought me with Your blood and called me to Yourself. I am yours and all that I have is a trust from You. Do with me what You will. Amen.
Pastor Dan Giles