Usually I am fortunate to sleep well; insomnia can be something very difficult to live with, leaving us weary and struggling even as the day begins. When we face difficult and stressful situations, sleep is something that can seem elusive to us as we find it difficult to ‘switch off’ and become more restless through the anxiety. Problems seem so much greater during the night hours; we toss and turn, fretting and worrying without resolving anything.

For many years, I have found comfort in Ps 4:8: ‘In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.’ There is great solace in knowing that God makes us dwell in safety and that He is on the throne, no matter what situations look like to our human eyes. At this present time, it’s more important than ever that we sleep well, entrusting the unknown and the fearful to God’s capable hands.

Jesus gives us an example of this when He is asleep in the boat during a terrible storm (Mark 4:38). No matter what was going on around Him, He could sleep, secure in His Father’s love and power. Peter gives us another example of this in Acts 12. Imprisoned and awaiting probable execution, Peter is found sleeping between guards rather than fretting about his future. (Acts 12:6) The angel had to wake him up forcibly before effecting his release!

Both these examples demonstrate that the peace God gives us is not something theoretical, but something practical. God’s peace means we can lie down and sleep, no matter what else is going on. At these times of isolation, it’s hard to keep routines going and hard to live with structure and order in our lives. I strongly recommend keeping, as far as possible, to normal ‘times’ and to ask God for His blessed gift of sleep. Ps 127:2 says, ‘In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.’ May God grant us the ability to sleep well in these troubled times, secure in His love and care.

The book of Isaiah has many stinging words from God, rebuking His people for their unfaithfulness and disobedience, but when we reach Isaiah 40, we find a change in tone. There, we read, ‘Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.’ (Is 40:1)

God is not only a God of justice and judgment; He is a God of grace and mercy, and one of the ways this is manifested is through tenderness. Like any good parent, He knows when we need rebuke and when we need comfort. He is able to be kind-hearted and compassionate to us. Isaiah goes on to say,

‘Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations.
² He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
³ A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.’ (Is 42:1-3)

In the same way that God shows tenderness and consideration to us, we need to reflect these characteristics to those around us. Tenderness costs us little but a little goes a long way.

The woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve long years reached out to Jesus in faith. Desperate to be healed, she stretched out her hand and touched the edge of His cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. (Luke 8:44) Jesus did not see her, but He knew power had gone out from Him. (Luke 8:46)

The disciples, because of the great crowd (who didn’t have to keep two metres apart as we do currently!), would happily have gone on without caring about the woman. Harried and hassled and on a mission to help a sick girl, they weren’t interested in finding out who had touched Jesus. But the woman, ‘seeing that she could not go unnoticed’ came and admitted what she had done. (Luke 8:47)

I believe that each one of us does not go unnoticed before God. We may feel insignificant as we stretch our hands to touch Jesus. We may feel that in such desperate times the numbers of those crying out to God mean He can’t hear our voice or feel our touch, but this story reminds us that no individual goes unnoticed.

Jesus took the time to speak to the woman and offer encouragement and hope, even though this diverted Him from His journey to Jairus’s daughter. In the delay, that girl died. Things got worse. Yet Jesus was not thwarted by delay or diversion. Instead, He raised Jairus’s daughter from the dead. (Luke 8:49-56) He still sorted the problem.

May we be encouraged today that we are not unnoticed by God and that even delay and disruption cannot stop God’s purposes from being fulfilled in our lives and in our world.

Mercy is defined as ‘compassion or forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.’ We’re often keen to embrace justice and right, but justice needs to be tempered with mercy. The tale is often told of the judge whose friend was in court and found guilty, resulting in a fine which he could not afford to pay. The judge did not ignore the law, but stepped in to pay the fine himself, showing mercy to his friend as well as following the demands of justice. This is a small picture of what Christ has done for us on the cross. We deserved God’s punishment and wrath, but Christ stepped in to take our sins on Himself and therefore God’s mercy reached out to us, even though we did not deserve it (see Eph 2:1-5).

One of the things the Bible repeatedly teaches us is that we who have received mercy and forgiveness should therefore be quick to dispense these things. A failure to do so indicates that we have not really understood the mercy and forgiveness of God.

Meditate today on God’s mercy towards you (listen to Matt Redman’s song ‘Mercy’) and from that place of awed gratitude, let mercy flow from you too.

The story of Jesus calming the storm is found in three of the four Gospels (Mark 4:25-41, Luke 8:22-25, Matthew 8:23-27) and was vividly brought to life for us by 4FrontTheatre in their show ‘Fisherman’s Tail.’

It’s a story with which most Christians are very familiar and shows us not only Jesus’s complete mastery over the elements but the disciples’ fear. We can relate to their panic, and I particularly like the detail in Mark’s Gospel (possibly supplied by Peter) where the disciples wake Jesus and say, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’ (Mark 4:38) That, it seems to me, is a very human response to ‘storms’. We often feel as though God is absent from our suffering: indifferent, aloof, distant.

Of course, Easter demonstrates to us that this thinking is deeply flawed. God is not absent in our suffering (or even ‘asleep on the job,’ as Jesus seemed to be.) Jesus took on human flesh to show us once and for all that God is not indifferent, aloof or distant. He is Immanuel, God with us.

But I’m also intrigued by Jesus’s response to the disciples after the storm. ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ (Mark 4:40) I believe we need to ask these questions to our own souls at this present stormy time. In Luke’s Gospel, the question is phrased differently: ‘Where is your faith?’ (Luke 8:28)

Fear and faith are two things which ought not to live side by side in harmony. Often, they co-exist in us (and we needn’t beat ourselves up over our inconsistencies, but instead simply bring these to God.) These are pertinent questions, however, which must be faced and answered by us if we are to grow in faith and let go of fear.

Why are we so afraid? What do we really fear? Do we fear illness and death? Do we fear uncertainty and unfamiliarity? Do we fear financial problems? We need to name our fears and then bring them to Jesus, because whatever our fears, and whatever lies behind them, He is more than able to cast them out with His perfect love.

Where is our faith? Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Heb 11:1) Faith looks beyond our present circumstances to the assurance God gives us that He is the victor and it will all work out for good. As we read God’s word, hear His word and speak His word, faith is built up in our hearts and fear has to go.

Consideration is defined as ‘careful thought’ and implies a weighing of thought before action. There is a proverb which says, ‘fools rush in where angels fear to tread’, and often that describes much of our daily action. We open our mouths before engaging our brains, so to speak, or we hasten to do something without realising that it’s wise to look before you leap!

Consideration – taking the time to think before we speak and act – will lead to us becoming more considerate people (being careful not to hurt others.) It’s so easy these days to type a furious text or Facebook post in the heat of the moment or to lash out with hurtful comments and then have to spend time repairing the damage we’ve done or regaining the confidence of someone we’ve wounded unnecessarily. Much better to embrace consideration, slow down and cool down before we speak or act. Prov 11:12 says, ‘the one who has understanding holds their tongue.’ Someone has commented that God has given us two ears but only one mouth; therefore, we should listen twice as much as we speak. Let’s learn to embrace consideration and think before we speak and act.