Good Morning Lord

“Blessed be the name of the LORD

from this time forth and for evermore

From the rising of the sun

unto the going down of the same

the LORD’s, name is to be praised.”

Psalm 113:2-3 NIV

I have known about the Lord for as long as I can remember. At age twelve I began to want to be counted with those who called themselves Christians. In my twenties and thirties I began to want to know the Lord, and in my forties I wanted to please the Lord. In my fifties I began to want to walk with the Lord. Today I find that I still want to walk with the Lord every single day. I remember when my thoughts about God began to fill more and more of my day. I am now at a point that even before the sun comes up, most of the time I wake up and my first thought is of the Lord. When I end my day he is also my last thought before I fall into deep sleep. Over the past few years, it seems that God is not just satisfied to have a good portion of my daytime thoughts, but now he is milling around through my mind as I sleep. Sometimes he even wakes me up and I feel an immediate urge to pray for the person he brings to my mind. Or if I am having a fitful sleep, God wakes me up so that I can give my fear to him in prayer.

 

“From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same” has taken on new meaning for me! As I open my sleepy eyes first thing in the morning my first thought is, “good morning Lord” and my next thought is thank you Lord for the gift of rest. My next thought is coffee – coffee – coffee! My heart then goes to delight because I am anxious to sit in my cozy chair, or go out on my back porch and spend time with Jesus. “Quite Time” used to be an activity of duty for me, a job that I must do if I was to please God. But now it is the time that I look forward to each day. The garden of my heart is a place where I can connect through the power of the Holy Spirit with the God of the universe. I have no need of a minister, a priest, or any other mediator. In simple conversational prayer I boldly approach the throne of grace. I pray…God listens. I listen…God speaks. I read his Word…he speaks again. I question…he shows me how I can apply the message found in the Word to my life. I am challenged by the Holy Spirit…I respond. Mental imagery also allows me to sit and talk with Jesus, the Master Gardner, who resides in the heavenly garden of my heart. I look forward to this time with God and I feel cheated if life interferes and I have to miss spending time with my Lord. For me I need this time at the top of my morning because if I am anxious…he calms me down. If I am fearful…he suggests that I trust him. If I am angry…he says I must forgive. If I am in need…he promises to provide. If I need love or comfort…he is more than enough. If I am sad…he gives me joy. If I am stressed…he gives me peace.

 

I used to feel guilty that I spent too long reading, praying, writing, or studying God’s Word. I no longer feel that guilt. It is true; I am in another season of my life now. There are no toddlers to feed, children to put on the bus, or a job to rush to. During those days, God met my needs in other ways. I learned to pray quickly in short phrases like, “Help me God!” “Please take care of _____.”  “Forgive me Lord.”  “Please don’t let that person take my parking place.” “Help me to find some inexpensive clothes for my growing children.” “Please take this headache away.” It was always more about my immediate needs and the needs of my family. I also learned to carry a small devotional book in my car so that I could grab a bit of the Divine as I waited, and waited, and waited. There always seemed to be so many things to wait for. I waited for doctors, orthodontists, children to come out of school or their many other activities. Thank goodness for those days when books  filled my time instead of cell phones. I know for a fact I was living the “grab and go” lifestyle for my Christian life. Praise and worship songs on the radio served as my springboard for praise. Sunday wouldn’t be much different. It was full of rushing to and from church. Serving at church, making dinner and then rushing back to church in the evening! I soaked the sermons up like a hard dry sponge that was begging for water. Still, God was good and I seemed to grow in my faith.

 

I am so thankful that God leads his children along. He knows which life cycle we are in and exactly what we need to equip us for our life stage. But life is ever changing. It makes perfect sense to me that the amount of time that I am able to spend walking with the Lord should also be adjusted to fit the next phase of my life. There is always more to learn and new ways to learn what God so anxiously wants to share with us.

 

Our “quiet time” which can often be less than quiet, needs to undergo God’s spiritual scrutinizing from time to time. If we are to step up the pace and raise the bar in our spiritual life it will require us asking God how we should be spending our time with him. Simply ask him if you should remain in the “grab and go” phase, or if it is time to move on to  the “semi-quiet time” phase, or climb higher still by entering the very “private closet of quiet time” phase, or if it is time to accept the challenge of the “dig deeper and study” phase. It might also be good to spend a little time evaluating your prayer time. Is God calling you, as he does me, to spend more of my prayer time in praise and worship and less of my prayer time asking? Has God given you a particular burden to hold up in prayer? Or have you learned the blessing of silent prayer as you wait for God to speak? Without a doubt, God always wants us to bring him all our concerns. I have found that when my prayers are self-centered, God misses out because my praise and worship is non-existent. The truth is when our praises and worship goes up to God, he responds and his blessings fall down upon us and our fellowship is sweet.

 

It is the Holy Spirit that prompts us to raise the bar in our “Quiet Time”. He knows when the time is right and when our heart is ready to receive more. He doesn’t want us to stay in the “grab and go” phase forever. God's prompting is his invitation for us to learn more about him, experience a new life changing spiritual truth, and enjoy a new level of fellowship with him that often blows our socks off! I don’t want to miss this learning experience. Do you? I want to always be sensitive to these promptings. We should be honored and excited when God invites us to climb higher. He invites us to  allow our heart to dance with him as we are caught up in the heavenly presence of His spirit.

 

Today my heart sings. Good Morning Lord! “From the rising of the sun, to the setting of the same.” Thank you Lord! Good night, Lord! “May your name be praised.” The sunrise reminds me of all the hope I have as a believer.  The sunset is a visible reminder of God’s faithfulness to me even when I am in a “grab and go” situation. “The Sovereign LORD has given me his words of wisdom…morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will.” Isaiah 50:4 NIV

 

No guilt, no excuses. Simply know that God loves you and the first chance you get he is waiting eagerly to reveal more of his truth to you. He is anxious to fill you with his love, joy and peace. He desires to walk with you through your day in a sweet spirit of intimacy. God has a plan for your life and he needs you to sit with him a spell so he can reveal it to you event by event. If you are discouraged or overloaded, God wants to love on you and encourage you. God wants to redirect your thinking when you are loosing your focus, and he wants to replace the stress you feel with his peace.

 

Not one of God’s children has ever reached the summit of “quiet time”. There is always more to be learned and experienced. This friendship with Jesus is real and it is yours for the taking. So as soon as you hear his call, draw near to God and know with assurance that God will draw near to you!

 

Questions:

1. Which “quiet time” phase best describes you?
• Obligation
• Learning How
• Grab and Go
• Semi-Quite Time
• Private Closet
• Dig Deeper
• Can’t Get Enough!
• What changes could you make in order to get the most out of your current level of “Quiet Time” 
2. Are you satisfied with your level of “Quiet Time”? Do you want more?
3. Will you find time to ask God if he wants you to remain where you are or if he is ready for you to move to a new level of blessed and exciting fellowship?
4. Will you prayerfully ask God to help you obey the promptings of his Holy Spirit?

Prayer:

Dear Lord,

I am both relieved and excited to know that you have a plan for my “quite time”. I am reassured to know that you are always willing to meet with me regardless of my phase of life. You know my schedule. Thank your for being a very present help in trouble and meeting all my needs throughout my busy day. When it is time for me to begin or move on to the next phase of my quiet time, I pray that you will place a desire in my heart to know you more. I pray that I will hunger and thirst after you and that I will not push you aside. Help me not to procrastinate. Lord, I am confused. Sometimes I do not feel qualified to learn on my own. Lord I am afraid I will become frustrated when I don’t understand something in your Word. In addition, there are so many Bible studies, good Christian books to read, sermons to listen to, and praise and worship music to sing to, and of course there is that big thick Bible that I need to read from cover to cover. God, I am overwhelmed! My time is so limited, what should I do? Lord, I will lay out my Bible and all of the other printed devotional books and Bible studies that I have been collecting. Now Lord, I will humbly ask for your guidance. Holy Spirit please impress upon my mind, your top two choices to be used for developing my “Quiet Time”. Father, you know what lies ahead of me in the near future and you know exactly what I will need for the journey. I trust you to choose wisely for me. After I have been led by your Spirit, I will do my best to obey. Lord, you have promised that if I will seek you I will find you. I am going to trust you for understanding. Tomorrow is a brand new day. I can’t wait to say…”Good Morning Lord!”…then see where you will lead me.

 

It is in your name I pray. Amen.

Come To The Garden!

“The mind of sinful man is death,

but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;

the sinful mind is hostile to God.

It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”

Romans 8: 6-8 NIV

Today the invitation from the Master Gardner is clear. He beckons, “Come to the garden!” The same invitation was issued yesterday and he will invite me to come tomorrow. In fact, Jesus offers me a standing invitation to come to the garden every single day of my life. Come to the garden! It is not just a suggestion. It is a loving plea from Jesus. Jesus’ invitation to come to the garden is different from a casual invitation that we might get from a friend or family member. We often say, “Call me if you get a minute,” “come over on Sunday day if you don’t have anything better to do,” “stop by sometime,” or “we need to get together soon”. Our Lord’s invitation is not a casual suggestion nor is it an enforced command. It is a loving invitation to spend time alone with him. It is hard to comprehend that the One who made us desires to spend time with us. He desires our praise and worship and loves to know that we love him. Our words of gratitude are music to his ears. He also wants to love on us, comfort us, and teach us new truth. He wants us to leave the garden with a heart full of joy and a mind that is at peace.

 

Sometimes the term “Quiet Time” is misunderstood. In a legalistic mindset “Quite Time” is a place for one to gird up their holy robes and falsely feel holier than another person because the other person is not keeping the “Quiet Time” law. I used to view “Quite Time” as an obligation and feel guilty if I missed the daily legalistic ritual. Part of the problem is that every day has its own special set of circumstances. Most days these circumstances are busy, loud, demanding, timely, and intrusive. The thought of “Quiet Time” may often sound like it is a place off in a far away county situated across the ocean of life with not even a row boat to carry us there. Satan would ask us to believe that “Quite Time” is an impossible journey. Oh, we would like to visit that garden but for now we are convinced that we must be satisfied to simply look at the travel brochure.  That type of thinking, my friend, is a victory for Satan! It is God’s desire that we come to the garden out of love for him, not responsibility or guilt.

 

When life is busy and hard, why does a loving God continue to call us to the garden no matter what we are experiencing? Doesn’t an all knowing God know that we are busy and that we have more on our plate than we can possibly do? Yes, he does. Nevertheless, Jesus Christ stands ready to help you custom make your “Quite Time” to fit your needs no matter what life stage you are in. For me, recognizing my continual need for more of God made me realize that going to the garden was no more of an option than going to the grocery store for food. It was something I needed to do for spiritual survival.

 

I need to go to the garden because the mind of sinful man is death. The mind of Christ is exactly the opposite of the mind of man. God calls men and women out of his love for us. We often react to God and our life experiences from our humanistic, emotional data base. This is extremely dangerous because our sinful mind leads to death. This can be death of a relationship, the death of reputation, the death of our spiritual joy, or premature physical death. I am finding that my “Quiet Time” should not be the place I go to read a verse of scripture and give God my list of needs and desires for the day and then rush out of the garden. No! “Quiet Time” is a time for me to be still in the presence of my Creator and know that he is God. When I become still before God he stands ready to forgive, comfort, sustain, and empower me with his grace and love. God always knows what I am going through, he knows what it is that others expect of me, he is aware of my busy schedule, and he sees my raw emotions. “Quiet Time” is the place where God begins to rein me in because he knows that I’m like a loose cannon capable of going off at any given moment! God wants me to give him a few minutes at the beginning of each day and a few more minutes throughout my day, and a few minutes at the end of the day. “Quite Time” is indeed that private time alone with God without interruption where we seek to know his mind in solitude. It can also be those unsuspected moments when we quickly turn our minds heavenward in the heat of the moment and ask God for his mind. “Quiet Time” is a place for seeking God’s response to all that concerns us and when we lay aside our first response and choose to take on the mind of Christ, he then rescues us from our sinful thoughts that can only lead to death.

 

I need to go to the garden because the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. Our Heavenly Father walked this earth for thirty-three years. He understands what it is like to have people crowding in on you, having people misunderstand you, and feeling tired and needing a nap. So if we are to know his mind and follow his example we will make a time and a place to be the recipient of his peace and rest. A mind that is controlled by this world and its expectations is a life of stress and anxiety. Jesus calls us to “Quite Time” so that our life will be controlled by the Spirit. Jesus knows that those who are made of dust are in need of restoration. “Quite Time” is meant to be a time to redirect our thoughts from things below to things above. Jesus knows that we need to learn his way of peace so he says, “Come away from the whirlwind of life, come to a quiet place, and come to the garden!”

 

I need to go to the garden because the sinful mind is hostile to God. When we avoid the garden we give Satan a foothold in our life. We become stressful, anxious, self-centered, and hostile to others and that is offensive to God. We label our negative thoughts, actions, and reactions as “mistakes” that are made in the heat of the moment. But God calls this behavior sin, and that sinful behavior is hostile to God. God’s Word cautions us, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…” I Peter 5:8-9a NIV It is in the garden of “Quiet Time” that the Holy Spirit equips us to exhibit control over sinful behavior. It is in the garden that we sharpen our senses and become more alert so that we can recognize the enemy when he strikes. "Quiet Time" is where we learn how to stand firm in our faith and walk away from sinful responses.

 

I need to go to the garden because it is impossible for this type of sinful thinking to submit to God’s law. God calls us to “Quiet Time” so that we can learn about humility. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” I Peter 5:6-7 NIV Humility is not the ability to put our self down. One with a humble heart simply knows they have a huge need for Jesus. Humility is being open and vulnerable before the Lord. Humility is honest. A humble heart recognizes that the focus of their thinking must move beyond oneself. Humility gives credit to our Maker for all that is good in our life, for all he provides us with, and for sustaining us in all of our times of need. A humble heart identifies us as a true follower of Jesus Christ. Humility allows us to fall deeper in love with Jesus and then be obedient because of our love for our Savior. I know no other way to find this level of relationship and fellowship with Jesus outside of intentional “Quiet Time”.

 

I need to go to the garden because if we are controlled by our sinful nature we cannot please God. If I am to please God I need a safety lock applied to my heart daily. Every day I need a fresh anointing of the oil of the Holy Spirit upon my head drenching me from head to foot. I need to study the example of Jesus and begin to learn his way of thinking. I need a special time to worship and praise my Lord. I need to express my gratitude daily. Otherwise I might become a bitter, ungrateful, complaining child. I need the Holy Spirit to apply hot coals to my mouth because an unbridled tongue above all things is sinful.

 

Everyday when I hear the gentle whisper of Jesus calling me to come to the garden, I must go! I would like to suggest that when we disregard and ignore the call to come to the garden it is entirely possible, as time goes by, the whisper will become fainter and fainter until we can no longer hear Jesus calling. Of course, he still stands ready to meet us in the garden but our daily reminders that are for our own good seem to disappear from our ears. Then out of nowhere some fine sunny day the rug gets pulled out from under our feet and we find our self flat on our kiester! Now it seems we can’t get to the garden fast enough. God is good. He will be waiting at the garden gate with open arms, anxious for us to enter. But never underestimate the personal loss of blessings that we miss or the personal cost we encounter from living our life apart from the sweet fellowship with Jesus that is to be found only in the garden. The garden is NOT a place of obligation it IS a place of privilege, divine guidance and blessing. It is a habit that only gets only sweeter as time goes by. The argument of not enough time, seems to go away when you learn how sweet connecting with the Lord really is. It is not a matter of how much time you spend in "Quiet Time", but rather what happened between you and God during this time. When you left the garden was your heart full and your mind at peace? 

 

It is God’s hope that you will always want to return to the garden and spend time alone with him and it is his joy when you do! The garden is a special place of intentional, uninterrupted fellowship with God. However, when I leave the garden, the One who lives inside me goes with me out into the world of responsibilities. He is always available throughout my day for continued fellowship. God loves receiving my brief thoughts of gratitude that I shoot up to his ears in a moment of joy. He welcomes a prayer for myself or another when those needs come to mind. God loves my phrases of trust when fear rears its ugly head. God hears my requests for instant help in my moments of temptation and times of need. Conversational prayer throughout my day is both an amazing privilege and a fantastic blessing!

Questions:

1. Do you have a special time each day when you meet with God to pray, read his Word, and listen for his voice?
2. Do you think it is absurd to suggest that Satan might delight in keeping us away from God’s Word by pushing us in the direction of other good Christian reading opportunities instead of reading God's Word?
3. Will you consider this scripture? “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thought and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 NIV 
4. Do you believe this scripture is true?
5. Are you willing to pray and ask God to help you re-evaluate what you are reading?
6. Are you currently enjoying your time alone with God in the garden? If not, why do you think this is?

Prayer:

 

Dear God,

 

I confess that in the past I have been guilty of misunderstanding the purpose of “Quite Time”. Forgive me when I reduce this experience to a specific amount of time, a specific time of day, a place, a routine, or an obligation. I am reminded that Jesus went to pray when he felt a need for fellowship with his Father. He made time to pray before any major event in his life. Jesus blessed bread and called upon the Father for strength before performing miracles. Jesus instructed his disciples to stay awake and pray so that their faith would not fail. God, the idea that “Quite Time” should be the same time every day is valuable to all of us who live shrouded in human frailty. I thank you Lord that you allow me to set the time and place for our standing “Quite Time” appointment. I am confident that when I establish this time with you, I know that you will faithfully call me at that time and to that place every day. God help me to understand that “Quiet Time” is where I praise and worship you. It is where I express my gratitude for all that I am and all that you have provided for me. It is during this time alone with you that you allow me the privilege of casting my cares on you. “Quite Time” is where you will open my eyes and teach me your ways. It is the place where I will hear your voice. God, I am so blessed that you minister to me in ways that help me change my negative attitudes. I am so grateful that you meet me in this special place and administer your balm of healing to my emotions. God, I now understand that “Quiet Time” is the very special place where you fellowship with me and equip me for the challenges of this life, not a place of obligation. I thank you God that you love me enough to call me every day to come to the garden!

 

It is in your Son Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.