Morning Thoughts

2

January 11, 2013 by lellielieb

My alarm goes off at 5 am.  This is not my favorite thing about life, and by  the end of the work week I find it very difficult to motivate myself to open my eyes.  I am often tempted, particularly on Fridays like this one, to get a little more sleep and skip the scripture.  I am very glad that I didn’t do that this morning.  I am thankful that God gave me the grace and the strength to open my eyes and sit up. I am also thankful that he has so ordered my circumstances this week that I am very motivated read his Word.  He is leading me along a path I dare not walk without a Guide.  I am grateful.

The scripture I read was full of encouragement today.  I read the part where God tells Abram not to be afraid.  He tells Abram, “I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.”  Then he shows him the stars and says “so shall thy seed be.”  This is encouraging because, though I don’t understand exactly how it works, I know from the New Testament, that because of my Savior, Jesus, I was represented by one of those stars.  I, too, can have God as my shield, and he is also my “exceeding great reward.”

I read more of the Sermon on the Mount.  The readings have been working through this tremendous passage for a while.  Today I read about not worrying.  God is my provider.  I should seek his Kingdom first. I also should be careful not to judge.  I need to be busy about getting my own act together and not be worrying about the faults of those around me.  These are all good reminders to take into my day.

And then in the Psalms, I found comfort, and joy, and motivation, and thanksgiving, and I read some verses about the morning.  As I read, a scene from yesterday morning filled my mind.  As my husband was driving me to work there was a spectacular sunrise.  The clouds in the west were lit with a pink that lifted the soul.  In the east, the rising sun set the clouds on fire.  As we passed over a bridge I saw a woman stopped dead in her car in the middle of the overpass taking a picture of the sky.  It was phenomenal.  I was thankful to get to see such beauty.  This is another benefit of early rising.  Morning lifts the spirits.  In Walden, his memoir of the woods, Thoreau writes, “The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour.  Then there is the least somnolence in us; and for an hour, at least, some part of us awakes which slumbers all the rest of the day and night….To be awake is to be alive.”

So, in the strength of my morning reading, I approach this day with joy, and I rejoice in the fact that God allows me to breathe and spend time with him during this precious time of day.  Here are the closing verses from the Psalm 57:

My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast!  I will sing and make melody!  Awake my glory!  Awake harp and lyre!  I will awake the dawn! I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.  For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!  let your glory be over all the earth!

About these ads