OCTOBER 27
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." Isaiah 26:3
My young daughter awoke from a nightmare. As parents and people watchers, we watch people whilst they sleep. Sometimes we wish we could sleep so peacefully, looking as they do, as though they haven’t a care in the world. Whilst at other times we wish that our racing minds would just allow us just enough respite so that we could feel some relief after a weary night of tossing and turning.
As she cannot yet speak words that can be understood, I was alerted something was not well when she suddenly burst into tears a split second before she awoke. I comforted her the best I could and gently rocked her back to sleep in my arms. I don’t know why she was crying only that she was comforted enough, thankfully, to resume her slumber.
I don’t recall not being able to speak, but I do remember having nightmares when younger. These were usually self-inflicted as the lure of late night television and the scary movies of the day like ‘Tales of the unexpected' and ‘Dracula’ had my sisters and me huddled together with the sound turned down as not to disturb our sleeping parents.
Nowadays older and slightly wiser, I don’t tend to have the same kind of nightmares; these are 
‘day-mares.’ I am sure I am not alone, experiencing panic of the imminent bill to drop through the letter box that will send your already lack of funds into starvation mode. Or that meeting that you have tried so long to avoid because you are not emotionally ready to confront your fears.
Don’t you wish that someone could take away your worries and burdens? Do you sometimes wish that you didn’t have to get out of bed to face the day? Don’t you wish someone would just rock you gently back to sleep and promise to take care of everything? Well there is someone who can.
Seasoned Christians know the answer but sometimes still fail to claim the promise daily of 1 Peter 5:7, where we are encouraged to,
“Cast(ing) all your care upon him for he careth or you.”
As the promise in the key test also states, He will not might, keep us in perfect peace as long as we keep our minds focussed on him. Why don't you claim this promise today?
“He came looking for me” - is our song for today by Southern Raised Bluegrass. Click on the picture to listen.
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Housekeeping details for you
The point of this short blog will become clear if you decide to use this reading in the way we intend it. Netherfield Seventh-day Adventist Church believes in healthy churches. You can see what that means if you head to the relevant Healthy Churches page of the website. We also want other churches to be healthy. That means you can join in our campaign to create healthy churches, with healthy people serving the people in those churches.
A healthy church is one where Jesus comes first. A healthy church is one where the people work together to put Jesus first. One thing we are doing is to join people together to spread that news. I would like you to look at our prayer partners page. This will explain how we want you to use this short devotional. Very basically we want you to find a like-minded Christian friend who you will join with to : choose to pray together every day, decide together on a way to serve other people together, to help them grow as Christians - and to invite the Holy Spirit into your life every day. This blog that you will receive every day simply gives a common spiritual purpose. If you are a newcomer and want to join the blog with this object in mind click here
