Are you a morning person or a night one? I’m a morning person, so naturally the theme of New Beginnings makes me think of morning—the beginning of each new day. I love mornings, they always have a freshness to me as if they hold a secret promise of great things that might happen as the day unfolds.
Some years ago as I was researching and writing my book on
prayer, I came across so many passages in the scripture where one Bible
character or another rises early in the morning to do something God had called
them to do that day, or to seek God in some way. Here are some examples, just
to list a few:
Abraham rose early the day he planned to offer Isaac as a
sacrifice according to Genesis 22:3. He rose early again the day after Sodom
and Gomorrah were destroyed and he hurried to a place where he could look down
on the cities to see if they had been destroyed or not. (Genesis 19:27-28)
Joshua rose early to travel to the Jordon before he crossed
over. (Joshua 3:1)
David rose early to obey his father Jesse and take supplies
to his brothers in battle. (1 Samuel 17:20)
God instructed Moses to rise early when he was to stand
before Pharaoh and tell him to let God’s people go. (Exodus 8:20)
… and on and on it goes. If you look for this pattern in the
scripture, you will find it.
So, what’s the lesson here? Is this bad news for those of us
who do not care so much for mornings and need a little time and maybe a cup of
coffee before we can even begin to embrace the new day? I don’t think so. I
don’t think the Biblical point is to love mornings as much as it is to get on
with whatever God has for you to do in life. In the Bible times, before
electricity, if they were going to apply themselves in whatever action they
felt God had asked of them, they’d better not waste any daylight; they better
get on with it.
Today, doing what God has asked of you may require staying
up late instead of rising early. But the point remains--embrace the day! Or
rather, embrace what God is calling you to do, and get busy doing it, whether
that means getting up early or sleeping late because you stayed up late the
night before.
Me? I prefer getting up early. I love mornings. The
scripture has a special blessing for mornings in Lamentations 3:22-23 which
tells us that God’s mercies are new every morning, and his compassions never
fail.
