End Your Day with a Good Word
by Rick Warren — September 24, 2024
From 40 Days of Prayer
“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”
Isaiah 26:3 (NLT)
How you end your day makes all the difference in how you sleep. And how you sleep makes all the difference in how you’re able to function the next day. To live with purpose, you need to end your day well.
End your day with a benediction—a good word. There is no better word than God’s Word. Read some promises from God. Be encouraged by truth, like this promise from the book of Isaiah: “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” (Isaiah 26:3 NLT).
When you end your day with this verse, you’re going to sleep a whole lot better, because it contains two incredibly encouraging truths:
God is in control.
Politicians aren’t in control. Other nations aren’t in control. Your boss isn’t in control. You aren’t in control. God is ultimately the one who is in control. The Bible says, “The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the LORD; he guides it wherever he pleases” (Proverbs 21:1 NLT).
Because God is in control, you don’t have to try to be. He’s waiting for you to talk to him and surrender the burdens that are keeping you from rest.
God and his family win in the end!
This isn’t the end of the story. When you read the last chapter of the Bible, you discover that God wins. If the last thing you look at before you go to bed is either news or late-night TV hosts talking about the news, then you’ll go to bed depressed. But if you go to bed with God’s truth playing in your head, then you’ll go to bed with peace.
Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom said, “If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. If you look at Christ, you’ll be at rest.”
Where are you looking to find rest? Before you end your day, remind yourself of God’s truth. Say to him, “God, you’re in control. This is not the end of the story, and we win in the end. Good night, Lord. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Then, sleep in peace.
Connect with Pastor Rick Warren