Rise and Shine! – Exodus 34:2

2 So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there on the top of the mountain.

– Exodus 34:2

Rise and Shine!

For some reason God likes to do things in the morning.  It's well-documented in the Bible that God is a rise-and-shine, early bird gets the worm, crack-of-dawn kind of Guy (all full and due respect intended), and He seems to set aside blocks of morning time just for us.  That's not to say He isn't available to us all the time, but the Great I AM and a.m. are, of course, perfect timing.

Maybe it's because there is just something about the freshness of each new day.  Maybe the still of the morning, as the sun gently rises in the eastern sky, and the distractions and busyness of the day hasn't yet had a chance to consume our thoughts, is just the right time for us to absorb what God wants to tell us as we present ourselves to Him . . . on His terms.

Now me? I'm not a morning person.  It takes me a while before my body and my mind begin to function properly.  I don't want to talk to anyone, look at anyone, hear from anyone, or think about anyone or any thing.  Even though I'm awake at 5a.m. every day (weekends and holidays included), I'm not really functioning as "me" until around 8.  But, if I want to hear from God in a way that is clear, it's when I present myself, in all my grogginess, to my heavenly Father.  It's in the simpleness and freshness of my as-yet uncluttered spirit that God reveals His deep things to my soul.  He refreshes me and He encourages me, and He assures me, and gives me confidence.  By the time my time on His mountain is completed, I have a renewed focus on why it is I was put on His earth . . . to serve HIm and to proclaim His goodness, and His grace, and His love to the rest of the world.

In the morning. In the cool of the day.  In His presence . . . it's how God likes to meet us.  It's His way of revealing HImself to us, and every morning, of every day, for the rest of our lives (and who knows, it might be this way in heaven too), He will meet with us . . . in the morning.

Prayer

Father, thank you for the morning.  Thank You for setting aside this special time of the day to walk with us and to reveal Yourself to us.  Help us to always remember Your time and to not let the day get ahead of us before we have had our time with You.  Forgive us for the times when we leave you behind and we focus on the tasks and the stresses of the day ahead, without visiting with You first.

Have a Blessed day everyone!

– Richard