Sleep

One of our global gospel partners wrote this week.  In the midst of a wonderful report on how God is active in his life and ministry, our friend asked for prayer for better sleep.  I’m sending him this old prayer and thought others might benefit from it as well.

Blessed Creator,

Thou has promised thy beloved sleep;
Give me
restoring rest needful for tomorrow’s toil.
If dreams be mine,
let them
not be tinged with evil.
Let thy Spirit make my time of repose
a blessed
temple of his holy presence.
May my frequent lying down make me familiar with
death,
the bed I approach remind my of the grave,
the eyes I now close
picture to me their final closing.
Keep me always ready, waiting for
admittance
to thy presence.
Weaken my attachment to earthly
things.
May I hold life loosely in my hand,
knowing that I receive it on condition of its surrender.
As pain and suffering betoken transitory
health,
may I not shrink from a death that introduces me
to the freshness
of eternal youth.
I retire this night in full assurance of one
day
awakening with thee.
All glory for this blessed hope,
for the
gospel of grace,
for thine unspeakable gift of Jesus,
for the fellowship
of the Trinity.
Withhold not thy mercies in the night season;
thy hand
never wearies,
thy power needs no repose,
thine eye never
sleeps.

Help me when I helpless lie,
when my conscience accuses me of
sin,
when my mind is harassed by foreboding thoughts,
when my eyes are
held awake by personal anxieties.

Show thyself to me as the God of all
grace, love and power;
thou hast a balm for every wound,
a solace for all
anguish,
a remedy for every pain,
a peace for all disquietude.
Permit
me to commit myself to thee
awake or sleep.

Amen.