In the morning.

A few weeks ago, I spoke with my dear friend Margaret.  Margaret is 91 years old.  Margaret remarked that prayer is a gift.  And her comment has resonated within me since.  How humbling that our Lord, the maker of heaven and earth, delights in communicating with us. 

Prayer comes more easily on certain days.  Maybe it is the stressful days.  The days I am down.  The days I am at my threshold.  Or maybe it is the days that everything is going well.  The days when it is easiest to talk to God because I am happy with God. 

But, one thing is certain: my communication with the Lord is most constant on the days that I deliberately open my day with prayer.  For me, this means talking to the Lord as I get out of bed.  It may sound menial, but those good-morning-God-I’m-tired-today prayers open the channel of communication between me and God for the rest of the day.  The earlier in the day I open up the prayer channel, the easier the prayer channel is to open. 

You cannot expect to perpetuate an attitude of prayer if you do not initiate an attitude of prayer.

We must deliberately begin communication with the Lord before our day gets away from us.  Soon enough, our burdens and our distractions will beckon us.  If burdens pursue me before I pursue God, pursuing God becomes that much harder.  When I pursue God before my burdens pursue me, burdens bend my heart toward God.  

This may seem obvious and elementary, but I quickly forget it—and perhaps you forget it too.  There is a direct relationship between how early in the day we seek the Lord and how much we seek the Lord throughout the day.  It is not necessarily the quantity of time that is essential; it is the openness to God that is essential.  And talking with God makes us open to God.  And being open to God means we are communing with God.

I want to share this with you because I rue the days that I fall into bed and realize I have missed the voice of my Lord or the communion with Him throughout the day.  It is not that I spend my days making these heart-felt, emotional petitions to God all day long.  While I certainly have those desperate days, I want to experience constant communication with my Lord that is not solely premised on my circumstances.  I am convinced that our Lord is blessed by our desire to commune with him regardless of the reason.  But it is the attitude of a heart open to communication with God throughout the day that blesses us. 

From the moment we arise, we must clothe ourselves with this openness to God.  And we clothe ourselves with openness to God by seeking God in prayer. 

I pray you experience this consistent, uninterrupted communication with our Lord.  I encourage you to be deliberate in opening your communication channel with God in the morning—whenever your morning may be.  Praise God that He listens to us.  Praise God that He uses our prayers to Him to bless us.

“May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.”  (Psalm 141:2 NIV).

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 NIV).

“All night long I search for you; in the morning I earnestly seek for God.”  (Isaiah 26:9 NLT).     

  

 

Happy Valentine's Day to you.  Today, be good to yourself.  Ten cups of coffee later, I have certainly been good to myself.  It's not my fault; this cup beckons me to drink from it. 

Much love to you,

Paige