New Every Morning

Generally speaking, I like waking up early in the morning - to pray, and read, and have some silence and a sense of my own space. But recently (last month or so), I've found myself just wanting to sleep in. My alarm will go off. I may lie there or even sit up, yet all I want to do is lay back down. And I'm not really wanting to pray or worship. And that's bad if you're a pastor! I think, "Man, I feel like I was doing all this yesterday, and now I'm right back at doing it again." I just feel tired and feel like sleeping But I know that if I do that, I may get more sleep, but it'll come at the cost of less space and my day likely won't be better for it.

So I get up. I have been sleeping like 15 minutes extra, to be honest. But I get up. And I go to my room to spend time with God. I've been a little reluctant many mornings, to tell the truth. I just sit there. In the silence. Just sit there. We're not talking, just sitting. Then I'll begin to share what's on my heart or talk about my day or I'll get a sense of his presence and I might hear him speak to me. Maybe I'll pick out a few songs to worship to (usually I'll wake up with a song in my head, almost every day, and I'll start with that), and that'll be good. But really I've just been enjoying the quiet and the conversations that come there. I've been reading my Bible some more, too. For several weeks I read Psalm 16 every morning - about how, apart from the Lord, I have no good thing, and other parts. I meditate on that and let it sink in. I've also been reading and meditating on Lamentations 3:19-26 almost every morning for the last few weeks. There the author tells us, of God, that his mercy is "new every morning." I can honestly say that I've found this to be true. And not just in a spiritual platitude sort of way, but a real way. I wake up to pray, and I don't really feel like it. When I sit down each morning, I'm tired and emotionally fatigued and not really wanting to go into another day. Then I meet with God and, quite literally, I'm filled with hope; I feel joy and energy fill my body, from his grace. I meet with God and I find that He is good and I'm ready, even willing, even expectant, to go out and into my day.

The faithful covenant love of the Lord is, indeed, new every morning.