It’s not light yet. I see a glow from the almost full moon and rays of artificial street light from behind the trees. But it is dark. Everyone still sleeps, at least in my house.
The clock shines red numbers on the ceiling — a four and a three and a zero. He’s done it again. For the 4th or 5th time in a row. Awake at exactly 4:30am. Sometimes even a few minutes earlier. He wants me to have an hour with Him before I start my day.
On “sleep-in days”, He gets me up at 5:30.
Sometimes it’s a husband getting up to use the bathroom that wakes me. One time it was my four-year-old’s feet, pushing my back out of bed. Most of the time it’s nothing at all. Just God lifting me to consciousness, out of dream-land, to wakefulness.
And if I stay in bed and let my eyelids close, they will open again only two or three minutes later.
Get up, child!
And so I don my exercise clothes, running shoes and my headlamp and get out. Time to walk. Time to pray.
I hadn’t even thought about “prayer-walking” until I read Janet McHenry’s book recently. It makes sense to me — multi-tasking, starting the day with positive communication, getting exercise and fresh air, seeing God’s glory in the morning sunrise. It’s good stuff.
And here’s the really big news: Starting my day talking to God makes him seem that much nearer the rest of the day.
It’s like opening Facebook chat and seeing that big green circle telling me He’s online. I type “morning, Lord” and see in italics “Jesus typing”. We chat. About whatever pops into my mind. And from that point on, the chat window is open. I may walk away from the computer, but He’s always online. Just a click away.
Before — I felt like I needed to fill out an application and get references to have a real heart-to-heart with God. It just didn’t happen very often and when it did, it was a long string of “Thank you”s and “Please”s tied together with plenty of “HELP”s.
Now, it’s more of a friendly dialogue, with me sharing my thoughts about people, situations, concerns, blessings….and then listening for any impressions coming back down the pipe. It’s a conversation, that begins at the break of dawn and continues throughout the day.
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
We’re not constantly on our knees, in prayer, but we’re constantly connected. Our first response is to pray, because we’ve got our chat window open already…he’s there, just waiting.
We can rejoice and give thanks in all things, BECAUSE we have a connection with God. BECAUSE we know His heart. BECAUSE we know He is good. BECAUSE we talk to Him every day.
Because He cares enough about me to wake me up before the sun.
Mother of boys and lover of Jesus, Laura {AKA “The Housewife”} blogs over at Housewife in Town about healthy recipe discoveries, preschool learning activities, hiking and traveling with small children, good books to read, and more. She loves quilting, photography, music and writing. A good day = much time spent outside.
Laura, I loved this post! Thank you so much for writing it. I love when I have time in the morning to connect with God. It really puts the pace in my day. I love that God is on call 24/7 and all that I need to do is call out His name and he is right there. Having that connection is so important.
Laura, I loved this. I was starting to think I was the only one who felt like if I wasn’t on my knees using “thees” and “thous” I wasn’t talking to God. I love your facebook references. For me it’s more like twitter…short 140 character or less questions, musings and requests.