When My Mind Will Not Slow Down

Devotional

Lights are off. House is quiet. Everybody else went to sleep.

You didn't.

Thoughts are bouncing off each other like bumper cars. What happened at school. What might happen tomorrow. That embarrassing thing from last week that your brain apparently saved.

And then you try to stop thinking, which just adds one more thought to the pile.

Your body's restless too. Like it wants to be somewhere else and can't figure out where.

You're not broken. A busy brain doesn't mean something's wrong with you or with your faith.

And God, who made you, is not in a hurry.

Here's what he says to restless people:

"Be still, and know that I am God."

Now, that's not a grown-up snapping "sit still!" at a wiggly kid.

Read the second half. "Know that I am God."

He's saying: I've got it. I'm in charge. You don't have to keep the world spinning tonight.

Being still is him telling you to put down something you were never supposed to be holding.

But how do you put it down when your brain keeps picking it back up?

Psalm 131 gives a picture:

"I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother."

Picture that. A kid who isn't asking for anything. Not fussing. Just leaning on somebody, wanting nothing except to be there.

That's what a quiet soul looks like. Not empty. Just leaning on somebody bigger.

Isaiah says it straight: "In quietness and in trust shall be your strength."

The world says strength is doing more and thinking faster and figuring it all out.

God says strength is quiet. Strength is trust.

And here's the practical part, for right now, tonight.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer... let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds."

You don't have to untangle every thought before you sleep.

You can hand the whole knot over. Just tell him what's spinning.

And then his peace stands guard, like somebody at the door.

Notice it says that peace goes past understanding. Which means it doesn't come from finally figuring everything out.

It comes from Jesus. He carried every anxious night to the cross so you'd never have to sit with one alone.

So tonight, don't fight your brain by yourself.

Talk to him. Hand it over, one thought at a time or all at once.

Then rest.

Not because you got calm enough.

Because he's God, and you're his kid.