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A devotional prayer book that cuts to the chase and shows you how to recover your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep all night.
“Patrick Eibergen has offered a special gift. More than just another self-help book, Sleep in Heavenly Peace reads like a collection of recipes, and very wise recipes indeed. The prescriptions are effective. Written visually, they are themselves things of beauty. Serenely, the author illustrates how the art of praying and living with God can provide rest for the weary.”
~ Fr. Alan Rosenau, Chaplain, St. Joseph Mercy Health Center, Hot Springs, Arkansas
When I lie down I say, “When shall I arise?”
But the night is long, and I am full of tossing till the dawn.
Job 7:4
Thou hast kept count of my tossing; put thou my tears in
thy bottle.
Psalm 56:8
Sleep on it.
In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
my soul refuses to be comforted.
Psalm 77:2
At the beginnings of your supplications a word went
forth,
and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly beloved;
therefore consider the word and understand the vision.
Daniel 9:23
Researchers tell us that children probably wake up several times during the night, most likely after the end of each dream cycle. Somehow they learn to fall back to sleep immediately. We insomniacs often need to recover that skill.
How ironic that we should, as adults, need to become apprentice sleepers. Babies know how to sleep. Puppies. Kittens. Horses and cows can do it standing up, fish with their eyes open. We can’t get the job done.
We used to know how to sleep. Now we need a teacher. Is something lacking in our imagination? Perhaps we need to ask God to help us create a new belief in him and the work he’s calling us to do.
Dear God, I have suffered from insomnia for many years and have prayed for help. All this time you have been praying better prayers deep within my heart. I have been too embittered with my problems to know that your song was there. Teach my spirit to be still in the still moments before dawn when I cannot sleep. Teach me the art of praying quietly along with your voice as you ask for the salvation of my soul. Show me that peace and sleep and rest are all by-products of a loving relationship with you. Guide me as I accept your invitation to walk with you for the rest of my life. Teach me to pray as I renew my trust in you tonight and every night. Amen.
Quilt Scraps
There seems to me to be some sort of disease in my house.
Leviticus 14:35
Try combining this reading with “Room with a View”
(page 52) and “House” (page 187).
God will teach me how to create my own personal sleep recovery program.
Sleep on it.
O continue thy steadfast love to those who know thee,
and thy salvation to the upright of heart.
Psalm 36:10
Then you will walk on your way securely and your foot
will not stumble.
If you sit
down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down your sleep will be sweet.
Proverbs 3:23,24
Recrimination isn’t important. My first step is to admit to God that I have a bad habit I haven’t been able to get rid of on my own. I need God’s help. This habit is slowly driving me crazy and destroying my health. I’ve tried many cures. None of them has worked.
Now I’m willing to be honest. I’ve been brought low. I can’t fall asleep at night, or I can’t stay asleep for as long as I should. I’m angry and frustrated, but I’m also willing to see this all as a blessing of sorts. This condition is showing me how much I really need God in my life. If I can turn this problem over to God, I can deepen my relationship with him. There’s hope for me. I am weak, but God is strong.
Dear God, your Spirit moves within me. Teach me to discern in my own breathing the eternal rhythms of your wisdom. Let me hear there the great stillness of your word and feel the peace of your presence. Bring me closer to you as I give and receive, as I love and am loved, as I forgive and am forgiven. Show me your path as I stumble and rise, as I sleep and wake, as I am lost and found, as I live and die. For it is in your light that I will see salvation and with your breath that I will live forever. Amen.
Behold, you shall see on that day
when you go into an inner chamber.
1 Kings 22:25
I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids
until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for
the Mighty One of Jacob.
Psalm 132:4,5
Quilt Scraps
I am about to build a house for the name of the Lord my
God.
2 Chronicles 2:4
A spiritual recovery program is hard work. Go and learn
what this means,
“Sweet is the sleep of a laborer.”
Ecclesiastes 5:12
A stubborn and overly literal interpretation of spiritual
reality
can result if we spend our entire lives in the
apprenticeship stage.
God always beckons us forward.
Try combining this reading with “Weighed Down Good” (page
172)
and “Filling” (page 205).
Most of us are actually spiritual school drop-outs.
Patrick Eibergen is a religious educator and amateur
photographer who lives in Chicago. He writes and leads retreats on
the integration of prayer and practical living.
Excerpts:
When I lie down I say,
“When shall I arise?”
But the night is long, and I
am full of tossing till the dawn.
Thou hast kept count of my
tossing; put thou my tears in thy bottle.
Psalm 56:8
Researchers tell us that
children probably wake up several times during the night, most likely after the
end of each dream cycle. Somehow they learn to fall back to sleep immediately.
We insomniacs often need to recover that skill.
How ironic that we should,
as adults, need to become apprentice sleepers. Babies know how to sleep.
Puppies. Kittens. Horses and cows can do it standing up, fish with their eyes
open. We can’t get the job done.
We used to know how to
sleep. Now we need a teacher. Is something lacking in our imagination? Perhaps
we need to ask God to help us create a new belief in him and the work he’s
calling us to do.
Sleep on it.
In the day of my trouble
I seek the Lord;
in the night my hand is
stretched out without wearying;
my soul refuses to be
comforted.
Psalm 77:2
At the beginnings of your
supplications a word went forth,
and I have come to tell
it to you, for you are greatly beloved;
therefore consider the
word and understand the vision.
Daniel 9:23
Sleep on it.
O continue thy steadfast
love to those who know thee,
and thy salvation to the
upright of heart.
Psalm 36:10
Then you will walk on
your way securely and your foot will not stumble.
If you sit down, you will
not be afraid; when you lie down your sleep will be sweet.
Proverbs 3:23,24
Dear God, I have suffered from insomnia for many years and
have prayed for help. All this time you have been praying better prayers deep
within my heart. I have been too embittered with my problems to know that your
song was there. Teach my spirit to be still in the still moments before dawn
when I cannot sleep. Teach me the art of praying quietly along with your voice
as you ask for the salvation of my soul. Show me that peace and sleep and rest
are all by-products of a loving relationship with you. Guide me as I accept your
invitation to walk with you for the rest of my life. Teach me to pray as I renew
my trust in you tonight and every night. Amen.
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