How can you make your day a powerful day? By beginning first thing with Yeshua!
If ancient Israel was expected to bring God the first fruits of their harvest, should not believers give the first fruits of their waking hours to God? Mark 1 speaks of Jesus waking up before dawn to go out and pray. The idea is that we close ourselves off with Jesus and seek a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:31) each day. Hee Kwon Park believes that life in the modern age will only get busier and busier. He writes, “It is believed that the early morning is the best time to guide their faith life without any hindrances from the regular schedules.”1
Distractions
Paul E. Miller writes, “Internet, video games, and cell phones make free time as busy as work.”2 If we are getting our dopamine fix first thing in the morning from news, email, and checking Facebook, we will struggle slowing down to be able to enter into the Spirit. Overstimulation dulls our ability to sense the Holy Spirit. I challenge you to go 30 days where you do not touch your phones or go online before devotional time. The theologian Kosuke Koyama wrote, “Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed. It is ‘slow’ yet it is lord over all other speeds since it is the speed of love.”3 If we start off too fast, we will miss the Holy Spirit.
Coffee with Jesus
I talked about this a few weeks ago. I had a habit of telling myself that in the twenty to thirty minutes it takes me to wake up fully, I can use that time to check the Internet and email. I discovered that by the time I got to devotions, I had already absorbed so much negativity into my soul that I struggled to connect with God. Instead of going online, I now use those first minutes to meditate (Well, on most days). I make coffee and sit in a comfortable place, thinking about the kingdom, what God might be speaking to me, what is essential for that day, and anything else that comes to mind. There’s no pressure to pray or read the Bible; just drink coffee and think.
Brain expert Dr. Eric Jensen writes about how we absorb so much negativity throughout our day. He calls it the brain’s “junk mail.” He says, “Never allow the ‘world’ out there to drive your bus. Take charge.”4 Instead of allowing the world to fill our brains, we can take those first few minutes and enjoy the morning's peace as we wake up.
Bible Reading
Reading the Bible is to the soul what milk and meat are to the body. It is nourishment. “No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word. Nothing can substitute for it. There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture,”5 writes Donald Whitney. Many people struggle to maintain an exciting Bible experience. There are several different ways to read the Bible. I love using my Logos software to go deeper in my Bible understanding. Most mornings, I’ll read through several chapters, only pausing to check a commentary. Sometimes, I use the practice of Lectio Divina—an ancient form of reading. Jewish people read through the Torah yearly in weekly portions. This also includes readings from the prophets called the Haftorah. Presently, I am in Genesis and the pastoral epsitles.
Prayer
David wrote, “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning, I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly” (Ps 5:3). Jesus talked about praying in secret, but John Mark Comer thinks he also may have been talking about praying without distractions. “If we want to reach the depth of life with God that Jesus modeled, we need to find a diversion-free place to get away and be alone with the Father.”6 There are many distractions in my home, so my “secret place” is often outside. Sometimes, I take prayer walks and at other times, I’ll just be on my balcony.
Silent Prayer
After prayer, I sit in silence in the presence of the Lord for roughly 10 minutes. James tells us that we should be slow to speak and quick to listen (Jam 1:19). It was during silent prayer that I had one of the great breakthroughs of my life during a retreat in Scotland. After spending 30 minutes without speaking, but focusing on the Lord, I felt as if the Lord embraced me and it lasted for the next 36 hours. Some people think silent prayer is spooky, but the Bible teaches so much about the power of being silent. “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.” (Prov 10:19).
Travis Pickell cites the work of Sarah Coakley in explaining that “moral agency and identity formation … are embedded within” silent prayer, which “involve a renunciation of the notion of control, a patient waiting, and a de-centering of the self and its desires in the hope (and expectation) of grace drawing the prayer toward mystical union with the divine.”7 Silent prayer is an act of faith, believing that we are allowing God to do a lot by us doing nothing.
Reading
One of the most significant aspects of my postgraduate journey has been reading. Most courses require students to read several books each semester. For writers and communicators, regular reading is a superpower. Cornelius Plantinga writes in Reading for Preachers, “The reading preacher will discover that great writers know the road to the human heart and, once at their destination, know how to move our hearts.”8 Reading will give pastors ideas, validate their own theories, and expand their vocabulary. Most great writers are also great readers. The author will explain that if you don’t plan for daily reading, you won’t read. My dear friend, Swiss prayer leader Bedros Nassanian, reads forty books a year, and it has changed his life. He writes, “One of the most significant things about reading 40 books a year is to keep learning and growing in appreciation of other people’s journeys, experiences, insight, and wisdom.”
Conclusion
Being in full-time ministry, I’m encouraged to incorporate significant devotional time into my day. If you have to be at work at 7 AM, it can be a bit more difficult. Let me encourage you to seek the Lord in building your powerful morning schedule. And you don’t have to do everything in the morning. Maybe you will do your reading in the evening or during lunch. The point is to have powerful connection times with the Holy Spirit throughout your day.
May your journey be blessed!
1. Hee Kwon Park, “Growth of faith through Early Morning Prayer School,” (Dmin thes., Oral Roberts University, 2001), ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
2. Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life: Connecting to God in a Distracting World (Colorado Springs, NavPress, 2017), 3, Kindle.
3. Kosuke Koyama, Three Mile an Hour God (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1980), 7.
4. Eric Jensen, “What Do You Do in Your First 30 Minutes?” Jensen Learning, accessed November 9, 2024, https://www.jensenlearning.com/what-do-you-do-in-your-first-30-minutes.
5. Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for Christian Life (Revised and Updated) (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2014), 22.
6. John Mark Comer, Practicing the Way, Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did (London, UK: SPCK Group, 2024). 74, Kindle.
7. Travis Ryan Pickell, “Gentle Space-Making: Christian Silent Prayer, Mindfulness, and Kenotic Identity Formation,” Studies in Christian Ethics 32, no. (2019): 71, accessed on November 10, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1177/0953946818808142.
8. Cornelius Plantinga, Reading for Preaching: The Preacher in Conversation with Storytellers, Biographers, Poets, and Journalists (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2013), 6, Kindle Edition.
