I am not that old, but every night, about nine o'clock, I start hearing my bed calling my name and before I know it my body has been convinced to put on pajamas and climb under the covers, even though my brain has plenty of other things I still want to do in my day (of course there's always something "more" I want to do in my day!). While this totally helps me get in the 7-9 hours of sleep per night that scientist recommend....it also usually means I will wake up, for at least an hour, at some point in the middle of the night.
Last night I climbed into bed about 9:15pm, read until about 9:45pm and was blissfully off in dreamland before 10pm. Then at 1:30 in the morning I woke up...I mean woke up in the "I'm wide awake, so let's start our day" kind of way. Well since no sane person starts their day that early, I started going thru the list of not so sure fire ways I know to fall back asleep. I made a list of all the things on my mind, I prayed, I counted sheep, I tried this weird hold your breath then breathe slowly thing I read online, and then finally I gave up and decided to read my Bible.
I don't usually like to read when I wake up in the middle of the night, as I have a tendency to want to keep on reading and I completely forget the point was to actually get back to sleep. However, last night, reading was really soothing for me. I find sometimes that when I read the Bible, just to read it and get it in me, not necessarily to study it, it ends up leading me to pray. I read the stories of Jesus and His disciples and I want to be more like my king. I don't understand something, and I want to know what it means. I see something in me that God is literally speaking about, and I want to make sure my ears and heart are open to His voice. So I pray.
Now I'm not one of those very "religious" pray-ers. Often my prayers just sound like the conversations that I have with my bests friends, but none the less as I am reading those pages in my Bible, and these words are bubbling out of my soul, I sense Jesus is listening and rejoicing and coming to my rescue. And that brings me so much peace (which is probably why after about an hour I was able to fall back asleep).
I use to hear about people who would pray through the psalms and think it was so cool, but I never really could "get the hang of it". Doing it myself I always got lost in the "kill all my enemies" verses. There was once I prayed through the book of James, but that's a pretty practical book so it makes sense to me why I would be able to pray it all out. But last night was one of the few times I unintentionally started praying about what I was reading, and I realize it's definitely something I want to continue.
So what about you guys?! Anyone have a particular psalm or book of the Bible they really like to pray through?! Any one else find that in just reading God's word, it often leads you into prayer? Tell me about it... I want to know more...
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