Trust

"You may disagree with this," the lady behind the microphone said, "but when I go to bed at night I pray, 'Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord, my soul You'll take.'" She was a soloist at the Jubilee Saturday night songfest, and she was giving a few words of testimony. "I know it's a child's prayer, but I'm a child of God, so I pray it!" she finished with a flourish of her hand.

Actually, David expressed something similar when he wrote in Psalm 4:8, "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety." And in Psalm 3:5, he says, "I laid me down and slept; I awaked, for the Lord sustained me."

When my daughter Amy was about three, she would say, "Now I 'Amy' down to sleep." One night she heard Trevor, her 7-year-old brother, say his prayers. He began, "Now I lay me down to sleep," and Amy interrupted, "No, it's not now I 'lay' me down to sleep, it's now I 'Trevor' down to sleep!'" She may have misunderstood, but she made sure God knew who was addressing Him!

I once read a story that famed preacher Rex Humbard told. He said a child had been injured in an accident, and the doctor was about to perform life-saving surgery. The mother cuddled her son, telling him that he was going to be put to sleep for the operation.

"But Mother," the little boy protested, "I always say my prayers before I go to sleep! Can't I pray now?" She told him to go ahead, but to hurry, because there wasn't much time.

He prayed the little prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep." He had just finished the phrase, "If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take," when the doctor slipped the anesthesia mask on him.

"It was the last words he would utter on this earth," Rev. Humbard said. The mother's words were true. There wasn't much time.

David prayed many prayers for protection and safety in his lifetime, for he was often pursued by enemies. He gave God the credit for waking up in the morning, for his prayer said,"I awaked, for the Lord sustained me."

It is still God who sustains us and gives us our every breath. I think of the chorus we sing in church: I am blessed, I am blessed. Every day that I live I am blessed. When I wake up in the morning, and I lay my head to rest, I am blessed, I am blessed! We need to praise Him while there is still time.