I'm not a morning person. It's no secret. Also, it's no secret that I feel as though the Lord wants me to wake up early. See here and here for previous posts.
Well, last week I got another jolt. You see, I was getting pretty good about waking up early, then last week it all went downhill. I could blame a resurgence of my migraines, but still... no excuses! Although I still made time for quiet time, I still want to wake up early!
Rewind to last week; last Wednesday specifically. I slept in just about as late as possible to still fit in a quiet time. This is one verse that I read that morning that REALLY got my attention:
Psalm 108:2 (KJV)
Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.
(if you have time, read the whole Psalm. It's a short one. As always, I have a link to the whole Psalm above - or hey, go ahead and read all of them! ;) ).
I read that and thought to myself "whoa." That's about it, because I didn't have time to think of anything else! I blame that on me giving myself little time to read, and wanting to read to much. I read 10 Psalms that morning. I was sleepy, but I read them. (note: I'm thinking that if I wasn't so sleepy, I would get so much more out of them - so although I still got my quiet time in, I still need to wake up earlier!).
Last Thursday I woke up at 3 am. That was too early (and sooo not cool), so I went back to sleep. Then I woke up at 5 am. A-hem, as in 5 am CLUB! Still, my lazy flesh convinced me to go back to sleep. Then I woke up at 7 am. Geez! I then slowly got myself ready to have a quiet time.
I started out by reading Morning and Evening (another note: I usually read that days' Morning and Evening before my quiet times. I feel like I'm getting a mini-sermon before I dive into the Word). Although the devotion is about "Christian wakefulness" (not an argument for waking up early, per se), it really caught my eye. The verse for the devotion was:
It kinda felt like a slap in the face. A gentle, encouraging one, but still... an attention-getter to be sure! If you would like to read the full devotional, click here.
(just an aside: that morning I read Psalm 119, which consists of 176 verses!).
So, despite the time change (which I'm loving because of the extra hour of sunlight), I will AGAIN try to persevere to wake up early. I bought three Carolyn Mahaney books to start reading in the mornings, too. I'm starting out with Feminine Appeal, then I will follow-up (in no particular order, yet) with Girl Talk: Mother-Daughter Conversations Biblical Womanhood and *cough cough* Shopping for Time: How to do It All and NOT Be Overwhelmed.
*Awesome photo courtesy of Google Images/Washington Post, not my camera*
Addendum: Check out what Spurgeon has to say about the latter part of Psalm 108:2:
I myself will awake early. I will call up the dawn. The best and brightest hours of the day shall find me heartily aroused to bless my God. Some singers had need to awake, for they sing in drawling tones, as if they were half asleep; the tune drags wearily along, there is no feeling or sentiment in the singing, but the listener hears only a dull mechanical sound, as if the choir ground out the notes from a worn out barrel organ. Oh, choristers, wake up, for this is not a work for dreamers, but such as requires your best powers in their liveliest condition. In all worship this should be the personal resolve of each worshipper: "I myself will awake."
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