INTRODUCTION
I am an early bird, even on Sunday mornings. It was the way I was raised and a habit I have kept for many decades. I go to bed early, which enables me to get up early. I practice the “early to bed, early to rise” principle. Sometimes I am kidded about my schedule, but that’s okay; it is what I am used to.
A few days ago, I was encouraged to run across an article that supports waking up early in the morning and engaging God’s Word!!! David Mathis wrote an article entitled “Jesus Rose Early What Mornings Say About Us” at the desiringGod..org website. The link is https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/jesus-rose-early .
I suggest you read the article. For me, the major takeaway was that the first activity we do in the morning says a lot about our priorities. His article reads:
What we do first thing in the morning, over time, says a lot about our true priorities. In general, we have our best energy in the mornings, after we’ve just slept, once we’re fully awake. To what or to whom will we give the firstfruits of each day’s time and attention? Over time, we learn to give our best energy to what matters most, what we can’t accomplish with compromised focus and energy, what we cannot afford to be sidelined by the onslaught of each day’s distractions.
”EARLY” IN AN EXHAUSTIVE CONCORDANCE
The article cites some passages. But, to carry out my research I looked at an exhaustive Bible concordance[i] for the word “early.” The attachment is a copy of my results from the NASB95 concordance[ii] is at the link: https://stevebelsheim.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Wake-Up-Early-in-the-Morning-NASB95-Early-290.pdf . I was surprised to find numerous uses of “early” referring to someone getting up early in the morning.
“MORNING” IN AN EXHAUSTIVE CONCORDANCE
I also looked up “morning” in an exhaustive concordance (NASB95) and found over fifteen usages in the Psalms. The one that stuck out is Psalm 5:1–3 (NASB95), which reads:
1 Give ear to my words, O Lord, Consider my groaning. 2 Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. 3 In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.
Morning is an opportune time to go to the Lord in prayer.
CONCLUSION
While I pray in the mornings, I need to ramp up my early morning praying. So, what do your mornings look like?
If you are reading this post and are not a Christian, unless God intervenes, your eternal destination is hell. But, your destiny can change.
Today can be the day of your salvation! Please see my blog (https://stevebelsheim.com/2020/04/20/for-god-so-loves-you-2/) for a description of how you can be saved. You can also go to another article at my blog (https://stevebelsheim.com/2020/10/20/there-is-hope-even-when-there-seems-to-be-no-hope-2/ ).
Please send me any comments to steve@stevebelsheim.com or use the comments feature of the blog.
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Scripture marked “NASB95” are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.”
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[i] One definition of a Bible concordance is (see https://www.biblestudytools.com/concordances/#:~:text=A%20Bible%20concordance%20is%20an%20alphabetical%20listings%20of,the%20context%20in%20which%20those%20words%20are%20used. ):
A Bible concordance is an alphabetical listings of words and phrases found in the Holy Bible and shows where the terms occur throughout all books of Scripture. With cross-references for verses, concordances make it easy to understand the meaning of terms and the context in which those words are used.
[ii] Thomas, R. L., The Lockman Foundation. (1998). New American Standard exhaustive concordance of the Bible: updated edition. Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc.