How do you begin your day? Starting your day in prayer and studying Scripture is rocket fuel for your day and for your life. If you want to know Jesus better, there is no better way than to spend time with Him. If you want Jesus to be first in your life, there is no better way to demonstrate this than meeting with Him first thing every day. Forget your cell phone, forget your email; how you begin your day says much about what is most important to you.
So many teachers say to make certain you spend time with God each day, but let people off the hook by saying it doesn’t matter when this occurs, so long as it does. I think this is ridiculous. Being a Jesus person doesn’t depend on you being a morning or night person; it depends on you saying, “I will give Jesus the first of my time, every day.”
How we structure our days is all about our discipline in a life we say is dedicated to Jesus. If Jesus is Lord of your life, He will be the first consideration in every aspect of it. When we awake, our first thoughts should be on Jesus. We should go immediately to prayer, worshiping and praising Him for another opportunity to further His mission. Each day is a gift, and we have no guarantee if this is the first of many more or the last we will have. Tomorrow, when you wake, your primary duty for the day will be to live like Jesus and to love others in such a way as to draw them to Christ. If we don’t begin our day with Jesus, we will be unprepared for the opportunities presenting themselves to us throughout our day.
Every day, people are dying without Jesus. People are condemning themselves to an eternity without Christ. This can’t happen on our watch. We must do everything we can to tell others about the beauty and salvation of Jesus. Here’s the thing though, we’ll never tell them about Christ if we aren’t passionate about Him ourselves. People only share things about which they are passionate. You won’t ever be passionate about Jesus unless you get to know Him. I know this because it is impossible to truly know him and not be passionate about Him!
Nothing you will do during the day will be as important as beginning your day in the presence of God. We need to thank Him for all He is and has done. Praying for the needs of others will strengthen both us and them. Reading the Word of God and allowing it to penetrate our minds will reveal nuances of God’s character we will discover in no other way. Spending time in quiet solitude, listening for what He has to say, will impact our life like nothing else.
How do you begin your day? Are you immersed in the selfish plans of your own activities, or perhaps consumed with thoughts of your job or personal ambitions? As a follower of Jesus, we must begin our day in the presence of the One to whom we have pledged our lives. Anything else is not worthy of our King.