“In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my request before you and wait expectantly”
Psalm 5:3
As we approach the end of January, if you are anything like me, your New Years resolution will be a good intention that has been followed through maybe a couple of times (if even) since the New Year. If like me, you are in search of making these changes in behaviour into concrete long term habits, you’ll already know it’s a daily struggle.
As soon as I wake up, the first thing I reach for is my phone, why, because I’ve trained myself into that particular behaviour, something I have been doing for years. Slowly but surely this beahviour has become an intrinsic part of our routines. These of course, by their nature, are hard to break, but they are changeable. There are pretty strong forces that are keeping us in bed and keeping us on our devices. We all know that checking our phones is not a major priority, although we continually do it. There is a better way to start off our mornings, but this involves making a decision each morning.
What we want in the morning routine is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We literally need to be built up at the start of each day. When we look at our phones, we avoid reality, become distracted by our egos, our sin is side-tracked and ultimately our spiritual health, at best, plateaus and at worst, declines. We want something that gives us a zeal for the glory of Christ for the day’s work. We want to be strengthened to face whatever the day may bring. We want something that gives us joyful courage and resolve to count others better than ourselves and pursue a servant-heartedness by becoming the servant of all just as Jesus said. That is the real agenda in the morning. The morning, for all of us, is a time when we have the quietest headspace, the least distractions and the freshest mindsets. Piper affirms this by saying, “Let the first words out of your mouth while still on your pillow be a cry to God saying, ‘I need you again today.”
A practical application is to start having accountability. This is the best way we can keep track of ourselves as well as one another when we are accountable to a friend. We can encourage when we succeed and gently rebuke when we do not. Accountability with one another is crucial to growth within the Christian faith, we are all in this together, with the same failings and intentions. Together it is more likely we will follow through when someone is keeping track of us so we have a responsibility to others as well as ourselves when it comes to solidifying good habits. One of the most helpful pieces of advice comes from Spurgeon, “It is a good rule never to look into the face of a man in the morning till you have looked into the face of God. The best way to live above all fear of death is to die every morning before you leave your bedroom.”
So, before you go to bed tonight, you make some choices and some plans and that you free yourself from the addictions and the superficial habits of avoidance that have been ruining the time you could spend with the Lord in thought, word and prayer. Make this your start for the beginning of the day. Cement in good habits, take responsibility and make a positive change for Christ, continually asking for help and encouragement from the Lord.
Here are some useful examples to reinforce and encourage us in our daily habit making: Psalm 143:8 “Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” Each morning, we can hear of Gods steadfast love in this new habit, on the lookout for it in His word.
Psalm 90:14 tells me how to think about praying for it when it says, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love.” Don’t just look for it and see it, but ask the Lord, “O, satisfy me with this steadfast love that I may rejoice and be glad in you all my days.” So we watch in God’s inspired Word for revelations of his steadfast love and his guidance for our lives and a profound sense of satisfaction in our souls that he is beautiful and that he cares for us.
Psalm 119:148 says, “My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise.”
Finally, Psalm 139:17-18 says, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! . . . I awake and I am still with you.”
God’s mercies are made new each morning. Great is His faithfulness.
One of the great encouragements I have found, is the Valley of Vision. It’s been the most helpful set of puritan prayers I have ever come across, strengthening my prayer life immensely. I would 10/10 highly recommend to a friend. Don’t let the slightly older language/puritan title put you off — every sentence directs us to Christ, give it a read.
This is the prayer of Morning Dedication:
“Almighty God, as I cross the threshold of this day I commit myself, soul, body, affairs, friends to Thy care. Watch over, keep, guide, direct, sanctify, bless me. Incline my heart to Thy ways. Told me wholly into the image of Jesus, as a potter forms clay. May my lips be a well-tuned harp to sound thy praise. Let those around see me living by Thy Spirit, trampling the world underfoot, unconfirmed to lying vanities, transformed by a renewed mind, clad in the entire armour of God, shinning as a never-dimmed light, showing holiness in all my doings.
Let no evil this day soil my thoughts, words, hands. May I travel miry paths with a life pure from spot or stain. In needful transactions let me affection be in heaven, and my love soar upwards in flames of fire, my gaze fixed on unseen things, my eyes open to the emptiness, fragility, mockery of earth and its vanities. May I view all things in the mirror of eternity, waiting for the coming of my Lord, listening for the last trumpet call, hastening unto the new heaven and earth.
Order this day all my communications according to Thy wisdom, and to the grain of mutual good. Forbid that I should not be profited or made profitable. May I speak each word as if my last word, and walk each step s my final one. If my life should end today, let this be my best day.”
By: Sophie Clarke
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