«My voice YOU shall hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up (Psalm 5:3).
Several years ago, I got in the habit of not picking up my cell phone in the morning until I had finished my devotions.
I admit that sometimes fatigue overcomes me and I cannot give the time to my devotions that I really need to, but even those times when I only sing a hymn in my mind, think of some verse, and pray, the cell phone remains in second place. I do not know what is going to happen as soon as 1 get up, and I need to know that my first memory of the day is my conversation with God.
That Sunday morning, my birthday, was not an exception. My cell phone had had the flashing light on since dawn, and I figured it would be early greetings. However, before I picked it up, I had my devotions. I prayed and asked God that He would give me moments with Him in that new year of life that was beginning and more opportunities to preach. I asked that all this would soon end, and that He would come back to get us. That was my wish without blowing out candles.
After I changed and prepared to go to Pathfinders, I picked up the cell phone and read the first message that had arrived in the early morning. 1 doubled over in pain, grabbed onto the bed so I would not fall, and choked back one of the most heartbreaking and distraught cries of my life, because in that message was one of the saddest and most tragic news I had ever received: one of my best friends had committed suicide,
We are never ready for bad news. We were not created with that chip.
I wanted to get into bed again and weep all day, but that was not what I had agreed on with God. My day had started with Him and although I was overwhelmed by the pain, He gave me supernatural strength to go with the Pathfinders in the preaching they had planned that morning and fulfill my prayer.
Another day we will read a little more about this, but I want to invite you to make God the first thing in your life, not only in making important decisions throughout the day, but when you begin, when you wake up. We never really know what is going to happen, and there is nothing better than facing it with the certainty that we are hand in hand with Him.
If you have not already done so, seek Him in prayer, Let Him hear your voice.