AFTER A RECENT HOTEL FIRE in Miami Beach some of the survivors were talking together. One said, "I couldn't sleep last night. No way!" Another said she hadn't been able to sleep either. "I want peace of mind," she said. "Where do you buy it?"
Probably the next step would be a trip to the drugstore to buy sleeping pills, the great American panacea. Statistically, Americans take more than 30 million sleeping pills every day. Thirty million pills—the equivalent of six heaping truck loads of little tablets—to purchase a little sleep. But peace of mind cannot be bought.
A health officer, deploring the use of pills to cure sleeplessness, said: "Few persons realize that insomnia is largely a symptom of some underlying disturbance which should be corrected."
In most cases, the "underlying disturbance" is worry. We are living in such a fast and confusing age that it is difficult—if not impossible—to keep up and to do all that is expected of us. Nor are conditions at home or abroad conducive to peace, confidence and security.
The remedy is simple and certain—but it cannot be bought. The prophet of old said of the Lord: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. (Isa. 26:33Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. (Isaiah 26:3).)
HE KNOWS that the trials of the day are too great a burden for us to carry, so He says, Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.
The mind of the average person is so cluttered with philosophies, panaceas and cure-alls, that he has not the faintest idea what it is to trust in the Lord. It sounds so strange, so foreign, to be told that the Lord Himself took a body of flesh, blood and bones in order to be seen, heard and handled by His creatures. In Jesus Christ we actually have God... manifest in the flesh.
That is why He spoke as no other man ever spoke, and worked as no other man has worked. His greatest work, of course, was His redemptive death. He died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
We have all sinned, and sin is enough to make any conscientious person worry, but worry in this matter is of no avail. Forgiveness of sins is to be had by placing faith in Him who died for us. Whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.
He also rose again from the dead and now lives to care for us. He is vitally interested in every detail of our lives. He knows that the trials of the day are too great a burden for us to carry, so He says, Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. (Psa. 55:2222Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. (Psalm 55:22).)
Now by trusting Him, not only for the forgiveness of our sins, but also to carry our burdens, perfect peace can be ours. Taking everything to Him in prayer, with thanksgiving, will fill us with the peace of God—the peace which passes understanding.
Thinking of Him, and trusting Him to take care of our troubles for us, is vastly superior to trusting to sleeping pills to make us sleep. Won't you trust Him right now, and let Him give you perfect peace?