The Night Watch

 It is early. Still dark outside. The wee hours. The family sleeps. So do most others. It is the night watch. A familiar post. To stand on the walls of my home, the Spring Creek Church and community to keep watch. To look for the ever-approaching enemy. The adversary is relentless. He never quits. 

The enemy, tricks, tempts, ensnares, torments, robs peace, steals sleep, and seeks to destroy. He oppresses, deceives, disguises Himself, attacks, enslaves, steals, kills and destroys. I do not need to fear. God is on the job. His word is comfort for sleepless nights. His truth is everlasting in the face of temporary temptations to be anxious. Read and receive sleepless ones. 

Psalm 46:1 (NASB)

¹ God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.

Isaiah 41:10 (NASB)
¹⁰  'Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.'

1 Peter 5:8-11 (NASB)
⁸  Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
⁹  But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
¹⁰  After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
¹¹  To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

 Isaiah 40:21-31 (NASB)

²¹  Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
²²  It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
²³  He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.
²⁴  Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble.
²⁵  "To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?" says the Holy One.
²⁶  Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.
²⁷  Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God"?
²⁸  Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.
²⁹  He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power.
³⁰  Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly,
³¹  Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

God also works the night watches. So with that in mind, we can sleep easy. Rest in peaceful slumber. He does not need sleep. He keeps an ever-vigilant watchful eye. We can sleep under the shelter of His loving care. He is our security. We need not fear nor be anxious no matter what nefarious activities the enemy plots and schemes. God is greater. He is alert. Nothing escapes His notice. Sleep on weary brothers and sisters. God works the night watch.