"Morning Prayer"

"Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee." (Psalms 143:8)

  As you might have heard me say, I firmly believe in morning time devotions. Not to say that night time devotions aren't good; because I love it when I remember to read my Bible and pray before I close my eyes to sleep: but morning devotions are more important when it comes to starting another day. I seriously have not missed a morning devotion since January 1st of 2010. That is mostly due to the fact that I have not wanted to miss a single day of posting this blog; and with very few exceptions, these posts are completed by 7am, whether I feel like it or not, it gets done. Thinking back to what it was like before, I had a certain amount of consistency, but never like this; this is something that I have involved others into, so I have a little more accountability. What does that say for accountability to God? What might make us neglect to meet with Him at our routine time or place? Time is pretty much the biggest excuse given; people do not have the time, because they wake up 20 minutes before it is time to leave for work. My phone goes off every morning at 4am, with a little reminder on the screen that says, Time To Pray. I wish I could say that I jump out of bed and get on my knees; but most mornings I wake up a 3am and turn on Fox And Friends; depending on the topic and what is going on, in might lay there next to Marianne until 5am, with the thought of still having two hours for prayer, reading, and posting by 7am. I am sorry if that might sound too much like works; but to me, this is a time of day that matters the most for learning. When I was in the 11th grade, I was for the very first time in my childhood life a straight A student; and it was because I did all of my homework in the morning before school. If I had two hours of work to do, then two hours before I would need to get ready, I would start my homework. I never bothered doing any homework at night; as far as I was concerned, night was a time to relax and prepare for the next day. That might sound strange, but it actually works! If we allow ourselves to try something that helps us be better, why not keep it up and make it a habit? This is David committing himself to morning prayer; that God would cause him to hear him in the morning, and not just that he hears, but that what he hears is how much God loves him! How important is that, to hear how much God loves you, before you get ready to start your day...

"And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." (Mark 1:35)