Words have power. Written words provide proof. You can read them, and reread them whenever you want. They can speak life to someone who needs encouragement. They can speak death to someone who is being deceived. The choice lies within you. How is it that you want people to remember you? Encourager...that is the gift that God has laid on my heart. To use my written, spoken, and/or sung words to lift people up. To be one link in their road to healing, restoration, joy. I have been without those things, and I claim them to be mine again. If you want me to seek God on a prayer for a specific situation...that is why I am here. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to pray God's Word of Life over you.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Who do you Spend your Mornings With? (Day FOUR-30 Day Challenge)

“The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.” Isaiah 50:4

We’ve all felt it. The nudging of God. That gentle conviction to do what we ought OR ought not. Annnndddd…we’ve all ignored it, doubted it, suppressed it. So what is one of the most common refusals? (Purely in my opinion…and probably based solely on MY own past.)

It is the whisper of God to your heart…2013 Tay's Senior Pics 048

”Wake up My child. Meet with Me. I want to teach you. I want to send you out on your day filled to overflowing so that I am what people see and hear from you. I want you to have something to offer to the lost and broken. Wake up. The war still continues while you sleep. I am waiting to fine tune your fight. When you leave me out of your morning, you sometimes forget I AM the solution. Each trial of your day, I LONGED to conquer. Each frustration you took on yourself, I WANTED. Invite Me FIRST when you awaken. I will give you the joy and strength to finish each day. Wake up!”

This is the whisper, that feeling in your gut, that I believe to be most commonly ignored. I’m not saying I’ve done a world-wide study or anything. I just know in my life, I have good intentions each night…and a snooze button in the morning. I am excited and determined when i set my alarm…but something happens while I slumber. I remember hearing a professor speak during my first week at Geneva College. He set this exact scenario that we have each day. Your alarm goes off to wake up for that class you chose at 8am and you have a split second decision. You either choose to get up…or turn the alarm off. No one is making you get out of bed as a freshman in college. What is ONE skipped class? What is ONE lesson missed? Again. And again. And again. Those choices add up.

The same goes with mornings without God. Choosing to leave Him out…it adds up. What does it matter if you choose sleep…just one day? And then another? Habit. Bad habits are easily formed because they usually fall right in line with the sinful nature that we were born with. Just because we claim ‘this is how I was born’…does not mean that it is how we were meant to stay. You may have been born with anger issues, selfishness, lack of compassion…but you were CREATED for more. You were created to overcome your weaknesses. And when you choose to do so…you are claiming victory over ‘I was born this way’ sinful nature in Jesus Name!

“Why are mornings so important? Why can’t it be night instead?! I’m more of a night person. I hate waking up early.” Been there…said all of that. Read again the verse in Isaiah that I started today’s post with. “The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to KNOW the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.” How different would your days be if you allowed God to instruct your tongue. Oh how I could use that some days. Uh…I mean ALL days!

How are you going to know the Words of life that will sustain your weary self? Your friends? Your colleagues? Your family/children? Your church? By studying! Do your days usually go ‘as planned’? I know that once my family is awake…my days seem like a crazy race to bedtime. Lol! They rarely…and I dare say…NEVER go as I plan. My only chance to be sure that I have quiet time with my King is to awaken while they snooze. Don’t feel like you must follow my example…but let us find One worthy of following…

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed.” Mark 1:35   I’m not asking you to wake up and leave your house to pray. I am challenging you to leave your bed. Set your coffee pot the night before. Buy yourself some yummy creamer. Make your morning easy and desirable. Set out your Bible and the devotional of your choosing. Find a new journal that makes you WANT to write out your prayers and revelations. Be willing to stick with what works…and change what doesn’t. Your routine doesn’t have to be so…routine. Some days I wake up and know that I am to write a letter to someone on my heart. I still pray. I still seek verses while I write. But I make myself available to whatever God asks of me…when I wake up! So why don’t I? I LOVE SLEEP! But…I LOVE my Savior more…and I am setting out to prove that with my daily actions. =)

How about these verses found in Luke 6:12-13a, “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, He called His disciples to Him…” Has that ever happened to you? You wake up in the middle of the night with a sudden urgency to pray. What do you do? Way TOO MANY times I tried to fake my way through it…God and I both knew I was fading quickly. Then what? I would wake up and head off on my day and find out something was going on in the middle of the night that could’ve used my prayers. GAHHHH!!! Why do I choose sleep over Christ? Why?! Am I learning from my mistakes…or am I just living in the shadow of their guilt?

What is God calling to you? You are His beloved. You are His chosen. You are an Heir to the Throne of Christ. Much is required of you…because you have something worth seeking. You have something worth sharing. You have everything! Figure out what your time is. Figure out a consistent time to dive into God. Consistent. That is key. Bad habits are easily formed. They take no work. They are natural. The fight to be more, to know more, to seek more…that must go against the flow of your born-into nature. You were created to worship. Start your morning off with it…and watch how different your days are! I dare you! =)

1 comment:

  1. The Holy Spirit is SO specific to me through your words! How timely this message was for me! It's Day 4...and wouldn't you know it?? It's a Saturday--and I slept in! (w/ every intention of rising at 6:30...I woke at 7:40! Telling myself (...it's Saturday..I deserve a break.) I love the Scripture..and desperately need "words for the weary!" Cut to the heart over this beautiful admonition God has given you. And thank you for pointing out the need for a good journal. I am a journal snob. However, as of late..i have been writing on whatever..and it's awful!! For the past week (since i filled up my old journal) I have this tiny journal that probably cost a quarter at the dollar store...and I just hate writing in it! My hand is cramped..the pages don't stay.and i can only fit like a sentence on each page! ah!! Okay..going to buy a good journal soon!!

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