Bedtime Prayer

There is a bedtime prayer I remember saying as a child. It went something like this: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep: For if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” 

     As I have gotten older, it is not so much I sleep through the night; instead it is how often do I wake. Was it something I ate or drank? Was it worry? Was it some other reason; like, God getting my attention? 

     I remember how Samuel was awakened in the night because God wanted to give him a message. Then there is Job 33 which says, “In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber in their beds, then He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction.” Also David wrote in Psalms, “I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night…” 

     There are verses in Scripture that tell me “God works through the night.” 

     I think my new bedtime prayer should be, “Now, I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, but if He wakes me in the night, I pray to hear ‘cause He is near.”

     I not only have to be alert to His call in the day but in the night, as well. My night-time waking moments may be to simply pray for someone or just thank Him and praise His Holy Name.