In The Morning...

   What is it about the early morning when the world is still asleep?

   The following scenario has happened to me quite a few times over the past couple of years:

   I know that I have a schedule to meet the next day, and I set my alarm to a time that I know I can be ready to move out when I need to. Then the last thing I think before sleep comes, is to say to God, that "You know my schedule for the next day's activities, and if You want me to wake up and spend some time with You, You will need to wake me before the alarm". I know this sounds mighty presumptuous, that God would even care, and sometimes I even feel that way myself, but with regularity, it happens.

   This morning, the alarm is set at 6:30, and when I wake and look, the time is 5:30, and I know I have a whole hour to listen for God to speak, usually through the readings of Scripture that are put in front of me through the program that I use. When I realize how all this unstructured time has come about, when my natural self would rather still be in the bed, I actually anticipate what God might have in store for me.

   So, today the portion, indeed it is only a phrase, of the Scripture reading in Psalm 88, is brought to the forefront of my thinking, and it is this:

   "in the morning my prayer comes before you."

   My praying is not always good, and a lot of the time, I do not even think it is that important, but God says that the morning is the best time for it. So what do I pray for?

   Some months back, I began a small list of people that I needed to think about and present before God. Not that He did not already know about each situation, but I wanted to care about them in a specific way also. So I took that out this morning and read the names, bringing the specifics of each back into my memory. There are names of my kids, their spouses and their kids. There are friends from different places and time periods of my life. There are folks that appear on the prayer notices that come on email from our church. Each of these needs seems to bring to mind other people in those circumstances that I have not written down.

   God seems to say: "use this time to pray for others this morning and get your mind off yourself and your day ahead. These people are important to Me and should be to you. Morning is not just a time to read and write some words down on your blog, although this may be important on some days, but it is also about the lives and concerns of people you know and love. Pay attention to that urging, too."

   So I do on this morning, and it is good.