Do you ever lay in bed at night and think of wonderfully inspiring thoughts and messages that seem to flow effortlessly from your mind. Only to wake in the morning and feel like you have nothing to say that could impossibly inspire anyone? I have those moments all the time. When I'm quiet, laying still and everything but my mind has been turned off, thoughts just flow. However, when I wake in the morning, there is very little that actually remains from that perfect lesson the night before.
Why is that? I tell myself all the time, I should write these things down, but somehow I think if I was to get up and try to write them down, I would lose them just the same. I believe the key ingredient is the quiet and the stillness. My mind can focus on a single topic, rather than the 80 million I've been distracted by the rest of the day. Being mom and teacher, there are not many completely quiet moments of my day. And even if my surroundings are quiet, my mind surely isn't. So I think the Lord uses the night time, those moments before I fall asleep, to speak to my soul.
I have my quiet times in the morning. I've found that if I don't get up with my coffee and my Jesus, I have a very difficult time functioning those first few hours of the morning. I need to rid my flesh of its desires so I can help fulfill the needs of 3 little ladies. My quiet time is nothing amazing or in depth, it's just my time with my Jesus thanking Him for who He is and has been and praying that He'll be faithful yet again in our current situation. I love to watch the sunrise He paints for me across the sky in our backyard. It takes my breath away and is a reminder of how much He loves beauty and to bring beauty into our lives.
So I find it interesting that He chooses night time to minister back to me. Perhaps I'm still distracted in the mornings with all that will have to be done in the day, that I can't truly listen to what He is telling me. I think He waits until He knows I am still and I am at peace to deeply speak to my soul. I am not claiming that every night I hear an audible voice from the Lord, but I know the thoughts running through my mind are from Him. They are putting puzzle pieces together from the day of lessons taught and learned. Connecting knowledge I have of Him with the wisdom He is growing in me. And although I wake up not always remembering what exactly I was thinking about the night before, I know it has been written on my heart.
The one clear time I can say I audibly heard the voice of God speak to me was in the middle of the night. He awakened me with a song and then asked me to listen. As I listened I told Him, "How will I remember these things you are telling me in the morning?" He told me He was writing them on my heart. I got up the next morning and journaled them just to be sure, but He showed me, that He writes things on my heart. As I seek Him, He makes known to me great and hidden things. He is writing wisdom on my heart because my heart is open and willing to receive it.
I want to encourage you to be still. Lay in bed tonight and utter a simple prayer asking the Lord to write things on your heart. What better way to fall asleep than a lullaby of praise and worship as you prepare to rest in His presence.
"Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it - the Lord is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known." Jeremiah 33:2-3
