Proverbs 3:24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid; you will lie down, and your sleep will be pleasant.

      Psalm 16:7 I will bless the LORD who counsels me —even at night when my thoughts trouble me.
      Everybody has them – night thoughts. The thoughts that float their way into our thinking just before sleep takes us under and hopefully into a night of rest. Those thoughts that come and either please or disturb our soul. Thoughts that hover in that void just before sleep. That place of uncertainty where we wonder what eternity holds. We are utterly alone with our thoughts. If we have a clean conscience, then sleep comes easy. Prov. 3:24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid; you will lie down, and your sleep will be pleasant. 
      However, if we don’t have a clean conscience or a blessed assurance, then the questions that dog our mind will last into the night saying, “Who am I? What am I? Why am I? Have I done the right things? What will happen to me when I die? Where will I go when I die? Why can’t I sleep? Why is this happening to me?” An endless night of night thoughts chirping away at our rest.
      God uses our sleep time to help us stay the course and keep the plans God has sown into our lives. Job 33:15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; 16 then He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction, 17 that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. 
      I believe God comes to us while we sleep and seals our instructions for our life within us so we cannot argue with Him. Otherwise, there would be no end to the “Why Lord?” in everything God would say to us. This way we can clean up and repent of what our conscience is showing us because God’s word is at work within us.
      Those who choose to be their own god will wrestle with night thoughts. They will have rehearsed the justifications they have used to do the things they did in selfishness or anger, no matter who was hurt or destroyed. Rationalization and excuse-ology 101 are the gymnastics going on in the hearts and minds of these sleepless souls. Isa. 57:20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. 21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. Night thoughts haunt the soul and give no rest because there is always a time of reckoning in our lives, and just before sleep is the time all of life’s noises have been shut off. 
      The quietness before sleep is the only time we are finally lying still. Then like a rising fog in the valley of doubt, thoughts come one by one to be judged and ranked in order of importance of God’s word. God has given us a conscience and it is either clean with the grace of God’s love or sullied with self-righteousness which produces fears, uncertainty, and sometimes terrors. Psalm 73:19 How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.
      A clean and hope-filled conscience will be rewarded with a sleep from God that is truly restful, bringing health and peace to our whole lives. Psalm 4:8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makes me dwell in safety. Our night thoughts will be thoughts of peace and affirmation of God’s love for us. We will know that we know God is for us. 
      When was the last time you rested in God and slept the sleep of the Innocent? Think of God’s goodness and thank Him for it. Come to Him if you are in need of rest. Matt. 11:28 Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Rest and peace be in you. Amen.