My mornings are often the strongest indicator of how successfully[footnote]Whatever that means. For me, mostly that I didn’t waste (too much) time and I did the major things I needed to do for that day.[/footnote] my day will turn out. If I start by wasting time, it’s hard for me to recover, and I might as well go back to bed before lunch and hope to start fresh tomorrow.
I’m currently making my way through Timothy Keller’s excellent book Prayer. One idea that I’ve already put into practice comes from our Reforming friend Martin Luther.
I’m a pretty weak meditator. That’s my own fault, as it is difficult to meditate if you don’t create gaps of silence in your life. It feels like I’m reading, thinking about tasks, listening, or speaking nearly constantly, but rarely deeply contemplating or wrestling with big ideas.
I have a morning manifesto, ideas for a new morning routine, and ways I’ve been trying to meditate. But, I don’t do what I want to do. I’m a good doctor and a horrible patient. I can prescribe the lights out but fail to pop the necessary pills or take the appropriate measures to become well.
So, with the help of the Poster Boy of the Reformation, I’ve started doing (a tiny bit) more work to prepare the day before, so that when I wander out to our living room in the morning, well-rested but still groggy, I’m ready to dive into time with the Lord.
It’s better to start my morning in a half-stupor of prayer and meditation than to wake up over the course of an hour having wasted time on things that won’t matter 10 minutes from now. Reading tweets doesn’t wake me up. It puts me on a high-speed slide toward dawdling and distraction.
Luther’s Recipe for starting your day with prayer:
1. Choose a passage for meditation.
I’m currently reading through the Bible in a year with the M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan, and I read from 4 different chapters of the Bible each day. That gives me plenty of material to choose a single verse or two to meditate on for the next day. This is the biggest key for me: have the next day’s passage written down, bookmarked, or highlighted so that when the morning begins, I’m ready to dig in.
2. Think of the instruction in the passage
What do I need to do in light of this passage?
3. Turn the passage into thanksgiving
Thank the Lord for the truth, promise, or reality of this passage–his character that I want to praise.
4. Confess your sin from the passage.
Repent of what I don’t do, what I’m failing to believe, where I fall short, or where I need help.
5. Pray from the passage.
Praise God and his character, pray for the grace to follow the instruction, and pray that I would truly repent of the areas in which I’m not being obedient.
There’s a two-fold benefit here for me. I start by spending time with the Lord and I know how I’ll do that, but I’m also starting off with prayer which propels me through the morning. I’m not just reading and taking the role of an academic or casual pursuer of the Bible. I’m taking an active role as a participant, listener of, and respondent to the Word of God.