In the Morning with God
Receiving and valuing the gifts that God gives us
Good morning and welcome to The Workbox.
I want to write to you for a moment about the significance of mornings. I seem to have always been a morning person (in the way that when I wake up and get up I am ready to go), so morning have been fairly easy for the most part. Morning holds a nostalgic place in my heart too. I love getting up early and going on trips, or going out to breakfast with friends ( and now my wife). But these are things that are special to me, maybe they are not for you. However, I think there is a value to morning that goes beyond personal preference. A value that drives us to search the Scriptures to find.
I believe that the Bible ascribes a particular significance to the morning time frame. When we turn to the Psalms this thought begins to take shape. Psalm 5.3 states "O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch." We do not prepare sacrifices in the Old Testament sense. But we do sacrifice differently. We are giving up bits and pieces of ourselves to God every day. (and it must be every day) As we crucify the flesh by getting up early we offer ourselves before God in the morning. We dedicate that first hour of the day to Him and I believe that pleases God very much.
Next, let us turn to Psalm 59.16 which reads, "But I will sing of your strength, and I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress." Every time that we wake up with breath in our lungs is a testament to God's steadfast love toward us. His mercy and kindness are so great that He wakes us up in the morning, even when He knows that we will not seek Him first. Psalm 90 asks "satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days."
God brought us ultimate satisfaction when His Son rose from the grave on the final morning. Upon the sun cresting over the horizon on that morning, Jesus gave us His steadfast love. How wonderful are mornings now! He brought with Him a new dawn, the light of life for us. As Isaiah prophesies in chapter 9 of his book "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who have dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest" The wording is similar here, and I believe it is meant to draw us to the same conclusion.
There will come a time when darkness will be no more, the sun will rise a final time in the glory of Jesus the Morning Star. God will dwell in the midst of the city and He will be our fortress and king. He will be our light and our love.
These passages of Scripture are just a couple of threads that can be pulled from the tapestry that creates the vision of the morning. And there are many others that can be pulled and traced to beautiful destinations. One can weave in the blessing of a good cup of coffee and a cozy blanket. Another can add a camping trip with friends. And another still can be seeing a sunrise from above the clouds on an airplane. These all add to the glory of a God-given morning. G.K. Chesterton describes God creating each flower individually, even the same kind of flower over and over again with a repetitive child-like joy. As a child wants to be tossed in the air until your arms fall off, so does God make each flower and everything else, with the same kind of glee. "Grow here again." He says. Every morning, every sunrise, every breath is a gift of God. God gives the gift, He assigns the value to it, let us see it, receive it, and give Him glory.
If you want to read more of my content here is an essay about the theme of light in the Bible.
