Appreciate Your Morning
Today is a new day. Every day begins in the morning. Indeed life begins each morning. Across the globe thousands died last night. They did not make it to the next day. They had no privilege for another great morning, a new dawn and another great day. A new day gives us a new opportunity to praise and worship God among the living. It gives us a new start to consider and mend our ways. A new day is the beginning of the rest of our lives. Every morning is a fresh beginning and day of new and limitless opportunities. It’s our next chance in the art of living. Every day is an opportunity to renew our allegiance to God, confess the Lordship of Jesus Christ, our wrong doings and renew our minds; then re-abide in him and obtain power for the day. It brings us out of dreadful night of calamities into glorious daylight. Many people do not pause for a moment to ponder why God has spared them to see yet a new morning despite their glaring short comings and failings. Why is God giving them another opportunity when they had blown several chances in the past? Could we be taking for granted God’s mercies and grace as well as messing with his unconditional love and righteousness?
As we enjoy new mornings, we could look back to see where we were yesterday. Remember today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday. It’s not controlled by our human efforts but by divine nature of God. God the creator made the sun to rule the day; the moon and the stars to shine in the night. These are heavenly creatures yet they control the times, seasons and lives on earth. Times have ways of healing wounds, by laying its healing hands upon the red wounds of our hearts. The seasons bring the beautiful galaxies; keep fresh and fragrant wrapped in the winter and bitter winds of the spring. Yet God is good and avail us his creation to enjoy both pains and gains of life. As another morning comes on, the grief’s and pains of yesterday grow old. As grief gets old the scars of yesterday grow fainter with each passing day. Surprisingly, life is sweat and continues to offer hopes. Each passing day keeps our memories fresher because it assures better days ahead. Therefore be dead to yesterday and put it behind you; be alive to what God offers in every new day. No matter how bad your past was, keep trusting and looking unto God; believing that today shall be better than yesterday and tomorrow shall be better than today. Faith for a new day keeps us going. Heaven cures all earthly sorrows.
It’s good to keep the memories of the past but more important to learn from its lessons. God desires and commands that we move from yesterday into glorious new day. You may have prayed and fasted in your yesterday and it appears you could not twist the hand of God enough to change things. You sew seeds and expected yield but nothing happened. You attempted to live righteously in obedience to God’s laws yet you experienced more difficulties and persecutions. You get distracted, disappointed and discouraged and wonder what else to do. Just know you could plant and another waters but the increase comes from God. Your time and labor as well as giving’s are not in vain. Do not be quick to loose heart because God never gives up on you. At the same time his delay is not denial. It’s of God’s mercies that we were not consumed last night; wait….[Lam3:22,25].
God’s compassion never fails; it’s renewed every morning. Great is his faithful [Lamentation3:22-23]. It does not depend on what you went through yesterday or what your enemies had planned against you; certain act you have done or undo. It all depends on the grace and mercies of God. You seem to spend a lot of time pondering on your past. Your past will never change. It has become part of your history. Stop rewinding your thoughts on the very fortunes and sentiments of the past. They will never change your future but bring you pains and regrets. Focus on the future that starts today. What you do today can change your tomorrow and the rest of your life. For this reason Apostle Paul echoed, one thing I do well is to forget yesterday and concentrate on the future. No matter how bad your past was it may not determine your future. Therefore, move from yesterday into a new glorious experience. God detest our being connected to the past and staying there as if life is meaningless and gone. We look forward to a new thing in a new day. New day ushers in new awareness, new ideas, new determination and new challenges. It all starts in the morning with new freshness and expectation, I mean challenges.
Some people think it’s a birthright to sleep at night and wake up in the morning. Unfortunately not all who slept last night rise to a new dawn. Again not all who began the day witnessed its end. As mortal men close their eyes in weariness to sleep, the Lord that neither sleeps nor slumbers is awake working all the time [John 5:7]. While we sleep, the heathen rages and the people imagined vain things; terrors by night and pestilence that operate in darkness. While we are sleep our enemies hold meetings, plan and execute deadly assaults on those who are not watchful. They open satanic files and pull information which their consultants work on against the destiny of their captives. Evil harvester and enemies of human progress move about working vain things. They introduce fears, procrastinations, distractions and confusion as well as terrible blocks on the destiny and glory of their preys. Those who survived the night face demonic arrows that fly by day; snare of the fowler and noisome pestilence that war in the invisible. They execute deadly plans that evil enchanter and wicked planners held in last night meetings.
Early morning is one sure way to become sensitive to the Devil’s trap and deceptions as well as what happens in our world. A daily time of early morning devotion and worship evidences our desperation to have time with our Creator and express thankfulness with grateful hearts for his manifold blessings, protection and guidance into a bright new day. It’s for people who desire God in their lives and avail themselves before him yielding to his will and purpose. The person you meet first in the morning set the tone for the day. Rushing out of the house in the morning without prayers makes you vulnerable to the deceits and attacks of the evil one and exposes you to a battle zone of the devil without adequate preparations.
Believe it or not, we’re in perilous times. The world is now filled with every form of evil, godless people and manipulators. Territorial and familiar Spirits are relentless in their attacks and accusing of brethren. They throw many rocks at people’s lives, families and ministries. These fiery darts of the enemy flow through our thought and spoken words while our minds are their battle fields. They crack our marriages, create poverty, poison our blood, instigate our children to revolt against authority and buy into opinions of their peers. They succumb to pressures and get initiated into occults and keep allegiance to the gods of the Eastern blocks; do drugs and commit rape, murder and every form of immoral acts as well carry guns to schools. These are motivated by evil Spirits. When you seek God in early morning prayers, our days are committed to the hands of the Lover of our soul, who created day and night and is able to take us through it. The Psalms of David says: my voice shall thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayers unto thee and will look up [5:3].These are positive comments on the goodness of early morning prayers [Psalm 57:8, 63:1-2]. Despite Jesus busy schedules, He made it a priority in the mornings to go to solitary places to chat and commune with His father, where he obtained strength and power for all the rest of the day [Mark 1:35]. If Jesus the second in command in trinity knew how to rise up early in the morning and communed with the father, how much more his followers. We must rise early to worship and praise God in appreciation of the new day.
Billy Joe Daugherty in The Breakfast of Champions [Early Morning Prayer] opined our faith founding fathers and believers of ages past upheld early morning prayers. They met early in the morning in praise and thanksgiving and fine-tuned their day. Every Christian family had a family Alter where they gather to pray. Their prayers experienced apostolic power and fire that brought victory and dominion over the devil throughout the day. Dr. D.K. Olukoya in Command the Morning said, that mornings have ears and they hear voices of men and spirits whether there are positive or negative. If you wake up and rush out of the house without prayers, you have only accepted what the demons prayed in their wicked mid-night meeting concerning you. We have been given power and authority to declare what happen in our lives throughout the day in the name of Jesus, by the blood of Jesus and by the testimony of our mouth. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift. No wonder it’s called present. Let us appreciate it, enjoy it and live it. Our resolve therefore is to join the song writer and sing the song of praise: In the morning, early in the morning; in the morning, I will rise and praise the Lord. What do you with the new morning that God has availed you?
Reach: Evangelist Ogbonnaya, Godswill at: weefreeministries@yahoo.com OR Box 720035, Houston, Texas, 77272.