Monday 5 September 2011

Treasuring the Morning Revival Time with the Lord - One Meaningful Thing I Did Today (30-day challenge)

This particular matter is in no way "special" or particular for a normal believer in Christ, since every morning, a normal Christian wakes up a bit earlier to spend time with the Lord! Right? O Lord Jesus, make us this kind of normal believers! This really should be normal - the first thing in the morning to contact the Lord, spend time with Him, enjoy Him, read the Word, pray to the Lord, pray over the Word... - just open to Him to enjoy Him!

It has become something of a habit to me - going through the training in FTTL (which I warmly recommend everyone!), then being in the church life, working, having responsibilities, serving with the young people and with the students, serving in the church life, being in the brothers' house - to have morning revival every morning. I treasure the Holy Word for Morning Revival and we recently went through The Crucial Elements of the Bible, the Central Line of the Bible, the Crystallization-Study of Isaiah, and now we are in the Crystallization-Study of the Psalms. Wow, every morning praying over the verses in the Bible - even while dressing up, brushing my teeth, cleaning, fixing a small breakfast, or... on the way to the bus! This brings me to today's topic of,

One Meaningful Thing I Did Today - Treasuring the Morning Revival with the Lord

As I was saying before, by the Lord's mercy and NOT from myself, somehow every morning I have a time with the Lord(it has been built up in the past 10 years!) - and I treasure it! Why bring it up now today? Well... last week we were in, The Excellency of Christ(as seen in Psalms 8), and this week we're getting into Psalms 15 and 16, so this morning I was excited about it: YES, a new week, a new topic, new Psalms....

BUT - there's always a BUT, right? - I don't know how this happened, but I realized that I need to do two important and urgent things before I left for work! Many times things happen - urgent things, important things, things that demand our attention - right when it's time to have morning revival! Most mornings you feel fresh and ready - especially after breakfast or after shower, but when you come to have morning revival, it's almost as if you're either too tired to do it, or too busy to do it. It's late, so you need to get going with the day - get a "fast food morning revival": a "doughnut pray-reading of the Word" and a "sip of reading the morning revival", "wiping our mouth with an Amen, Lord!" then run off to the things of the day!

O Lord Jesus... why do we need to have morning revival? Why do we need to be revived every morning? Or, to quote many young people I am around, Why do I HAVE TO have morning revival? When you're on your own, setting some time aside in the morning to wake up a bit earlier and spend time with the Lord - you pay a price you pay to meet your Beloved Lord Jesus! The Lord is so real, fresh, and living in the morning for you to touch Him! His mercies are new, and His compassions never fail(Lam. 3:22-23)! The Word of God which we read and pray over in the morning is a source of supply for the whole day! The portions in the Word and in the ministry which we enjoy in the morning time are being deposited into us and become a constant supply for the day, the week, and for our whole life.

And it's all because we PAY THE PRICE to wake up a bit earlier to spend time with the Lord. Or maybe on the way to the bus stop to go to school / work, you call on the name of the Lord + on the bus you read some verses / the morning revival. Or while you're on the tube as a small sardine compacted with the others around you - they read the newspapers or listen to music, but you inwardly call and outwardly read and re-read the Word / the morning revival. Or maybe you go for a walk or a run, and you open to the Lord, converse with Him, take some verses and muse + pray over, digesting them and chewing on them.

Or maybe... - it's up to you: you can experiment, try, and invent your own way in your own time, your own schedule, to touch the Lord! It is so important to touch the Lord first thing in the morning that you will treasure your time with Him more than your apportioned food! Yes, you're physically hungry, but you're more hungry and more eager to enjoy the Lord than to have some breakfast! Or maybe you have the morning revival / the Bible right by the cereal bowl / "the full English Breakfast" / your breakfast dish, and as you eat(physically), you really eat(spiritually)!

Coming back to this morning, even though usually I set aside 20-25 minutes of pray-reading the Word, musing on it, reading the portions, reading them again, praying over the main points, reading the outline, etc - however the Lord guides me - this morning I only had 5-10 minutes with the Lord! I was distracted - I took care of "those two urgent things", and time was up - I had to go to work! Then I realized - I need MORE of the Lord! Ooooo.... I need more of Christ! More FOOD! More of the Word! So on my way to work I continued to pray over the Word... at work I re-read the portion really quick... and something really precious came out -


How precious it is that we can have a time with the Lord in the morning! I am learning every day to treasure my time with Him. Maybe even wake up earlier, spend more quality time with the Lord. Don't wait for inspiration, and don't wait even to "go to your desk to the morning revival book or the Bible" - start with the shower! Call on the Lord's name in the shower, ask Him to cleanse you with His blood and wash you in His Word just as the shower washes away anything of the old.... As you brush your teeth, why not muse on and pray within, Lord, what about my speaking? Sanctify and purify my speaking to others! You need to wash your hands - Lord, cleanse my doings and my deeds, sanctify my living! ... - there are so many little things you need to do in the morning, and you can enjoy the Lord / pray / do them with the Lord! O, Lord, our time with You in the morning!

2 comments:

  1. Amen! One item of fellowship I really enjoyed in the FTTA was, "Personal morning revival is PERSONAL morning revival." Meaning--there is no set formula. There is no right or wrong way to have a time with the Lord. I remember when a trainer shared, "If it helps you touch the Lord to stand on your head, then stand on your head!" We don't need to be religious about our morning time with the Lord. Recently, I changed things up a bit. I began to set aside more time in the morning to take a long walk on a trail in the woods. In the mornings, I get up, take a shower, get dressed, and spend this walking time with the Lord. This has really refreshed me and saved me from getting stuck in routine. Praise the Lord!

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  2. Amen, Daniel - no set formula! Not sure about the "stand on your head" ;) but indeed each believer and lover of the Lord needs to find new ways of enjoying the Lord. NO ROUTINE!

    We human beings are creatures of routine, feeling more securely when we have a set thing going on... but when it comes to having a relationship, especially with the Lord, routine can kill the freshness, the newness, and the vital touch with Him...

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