Waking Early and Giving Jesus our First
By: Preya Jones
Heart check - We’re selfish (We as in me). We want to praise Jesus and spend time with Jesus when we want to and when it’s most convenient for us. We build our worship and prayer time to Jesus around our schedules, as opposed to building our schedules around our worship and prayer time. I’m in so much awe of and truly convicted by the countless moments in the Bible where it mentions individuals rising in the morning before the sun, just so that they could have more time spent with the Lord.
Genesis 19:27 states,
“Abraham got up early that morning and hurries out to the place where he had stood in the Lord’s presence.”
Mark 1:35 states,
“Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.”
1 Samuel 1:19a states,
“The entire family got up early the next morning and went to worship the lord once more.”
That’s how important time with the Lord and worship was to them & honestly that’s how important it should be to us who profess to follow the Lord, but is it?
Psalm 119:147 states,
“I rise before dawn and cry for help; I hope in your words.” (ESV).
Imagine that. Getting up a little earlier in the morning to have a few extra minutes to just cry out to our Abba Father about the good things, the hard things, and the confusing things going on in our lives and then having hope and joy from reading in His Word of what our response ought to be. That’s beautiful.
Are the first words out of our mouths in the morning to our Heavenly Father? Do our first thoughts revolve around Jesus? Do our first actions of the day represent our love for Christ well?
The truth is; most of us would rather sleep in a little longer, spend a little more time eating breakfast, or maybe a few more minutes in the mirror. It’s our nature and has become habitual in our morning routines. I am so guilty of this.
Let’s be real - I don’t think that every individual in the Bible who arose early in the morning to spend time with their Heavenly Father really enjoyed the concept of waking early. But, there has to come a point in our lives when we choose Jesus as our most prized and treasured possession. When we choose Jesus over our extra sleep, over our extra breakfast, & over our extra mirror time.
I love Philippians 3. It’s in this chapter, along with many others, that we are able to truly grasp the heart of Paul and just how much he truly loved and chased after Jesus. Verse 8 of this chapter states,
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” (ESV).
Reflect on that for a moment.
Paul doesn’t even go as far as to mention the gift of heaven in this verse, instead he mentions merely knowing Christ. So often we get caught up in thinking that heaven is our “prize” for following Jesus, when really Jesus is our TRUE prize. We have to value and prize Jesus and the act of simply knowing Him over EVERYTHING; over our extra sleep, extra breakfast, and extra mirror time.
So how do we get to know Jesus? — We rise up and meet Jesus in our Bible. We study and meditate on the Word, we pray, and we engage with other believers - with the body of Christ. We have to want Him and have to choose Him over anything and everything else. (*see Luke 10:27)
Neuroplasticity is a scientifically proven concept. The more we choose a new task, different emotions, and overall different thought process; the more our brains will adapt and this new way of thinking, saying, or doing will become second nature. The old way of thinking, saying, and doing will weaken and often times will even completely cease to exist.
As believers, we are called to lead our flesh with The Spirit, to lead our feelings and our emotions with our minds and what we know is truth. And that truth can only come from our Heavenly Father.
I want to challenge you family. As school goes back in session, vacations wind down, and our morning routines go back to “normal”, let’s change our normals. Let’s be bold. Let’s choose Jesus. Let’s choose to build our morning schedules around our time spent with our Heavenly Father, because in comparison; everything else is rubbish.
