The day is Yours, and Yours also the night; You established the sun and moon. Psalm 74:16

We measure our life by active days. Though we spend one third of our life in sleep, such time does not seem to count. Many try to reduce that time in order to make life more worthwhile, more profitable. Manufacturers consider investment wasted if machinery stands idle for hours. Swing and night shifts are the accepted thing.

The night in which God gives His beloved sleep is still the Lord's. He who made the night never slumbers nor sleeps. He who prepared light and the sun in order to arouse life and make it active uses the night for the purposes of His creation, too. While we sleep, God's processes are active. We lie down worn and weak; we awaken refreshed and strengthened. Spend a sleepless night tossing on your bed, or foolishly in dissipating life, and you know you have missed the supply of strength.

Let us thank God for the night. When we lay ourselves down to sleep, He is alert to guard and to put in order what the day has spoiled. He is the God, who by His death and resurrection, has assured us that the night of death is likewise His. Trusting in Him, we face it without fear. We know that He will be there to rebuild and to reawaken to the great morning of heaven.

PRAYER: Teach me to live that I may dread the grave as little as my bed. Amen.

(Taken from "Words of Promise," copyright 1996 (out of print), Concordia Publishing House. For information on other devotional materials, call 1-800-325-3040.)

Today's Bible Readings: 2 Chronicles 4-6    2 Corinthians 1

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