{"id":5936,"date":"2020-09-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/?p=5936"},"modified":"2024-10-08T14:58:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T14:58:04","slug":"day-23-the-secret-of-the-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/2020\/09\/15\/day-23-the-secret-of-the-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 23: The Secret Of The Morning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>\u201cO God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory. Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn\u201d Psalm 108:1-2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cIf night is your best time, give God your best! I don\u2019t believe everyone\u2019s secret life with God is identical. We are highly unique, and the Lord loves the particular spice that comes from the fragrance of your own individuality. So give Him the portion of your day that works best for your personality. For most of us, the morning represents \u2018our best.\u2019 It\u2019s the time when, for the majority, our minds are clearest and most alert.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cI\u2019ve heard from more than one person that it is helpful to them to have a set time and set place for meeting with God. By establishing consistency in both the time and place, they are able to go deeper in their relationship with Christ. It is supposed by some that when God came to commune with Adam and Eve \u2018in the cool of the day\u2019 (Genesis 3:8), it was a reference to the morning.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cDavid was resolute\u2014\u2018steadfast\u2019 in his heart\u2014about the priority of the secret place. He had a constancy of fervency; his zeal for seeking God was unabated and consistently hot. Even as God\u2019s love toward David was steadfast, David\u2019s love for God was steadfast. He performed his \u2018daily vows\u2019 (Psalm 61:8) by steadfastly committing himself to seeking God in the early morning hours, the time when he would \u2018awaken the dawn.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cJesus also modeled a pattern of rising early to pray. \u2018Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed\u2019 (Mark 1:35). The context of that statement is fascinating. It\u2019s referring to Sunday morning; the day before had been an extremely busy Sabbath. He had taught in the synagogue, healed Peter\u2019s mother- in-law, visited with the group over dinner, and then after 6:00 p.m. on Saturday evening (at the close of the Sabbath) Jesus was suddenly bombarded with a multitude of people who were swarming Him for a healing touch.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cCould it be that the intensity of the previous evening\u2019s ministry gave Him an even greater urgency to be with His Father in the morning? One thing seems clear: It wasn\u2019t an especially long night\u2026Even when His body craved more sleep, Jesus knew His true source of revitalization would not be on His back but on His face. Jesus\u2019 commitment to the secret place was profoundly prophesied by David in Psalm 110:3, \u201cIn the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth.\u201d The secret place was Jesus\u2019 \u2018womb of the morning.\u2019 It was the place where life incubated, where creativity germinated, where inspiration gestated, where power percolated.\u201d\u2014<\/em><strong>Bob Sorge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cGive me the grace to continue and consistently meet You Lord in the womb of the morning. It\u2019s in this early morning encounters that Your life in me is refreshed and renewed. Don\u2019t allow me slack in this devotional discipline\u2014rather, make me wake earlier and spend longer time with You\u2014even as Jesus did. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Challenge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seek a specific time and place to regularly fellowship with God, particularly in the early hours of each day, and in a lonely place!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cO God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory. Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn\u201d Psalm 108:1-2 \u201cIf night is your best time, give God your best! I don\u2019t believe everyone\u2019s secret life with God is identical. We are highly unique, and the Lord loves [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-50-days-pilgrim-challenge","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/50-days-pilgrim-challenge.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5937,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5936\/revisions\/5937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}