I must admit, I love the morning. The peace, the silence, the coffee... And most importantly, the presence of God! The Psalmist loved the morning. We can catch his sense of joy as he lifted up his heart to praise Yahweh, the Keeper of his soul.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning,
And Your faithfulness every night,
On an instrument of ten strings,
On the lute,
And on the harp,
With harmonious sound.
For You, LORD, have made me glad through Your work;
I will triumph in the works of Your hands.
Psalm 92:1-4
Even though I grew up in a Christian family, I did not realize the importance of having a ‘quiet time’ with God each morning until I was 18. This materialized through a challenging teaching on the subject one Saturday evening. Then began an incredible journey of discovering truth for myself. The Bible is the LIVING WORD OF GOD! How exciting to hold it in our hands and learn through the guidance of the Holy Spirit about God, His plan for humanity and the future! It is helpful to find a quiet place where you can pray, listen, read and write before you rush into the day!
Mr. John McQuoid wrote a practical book on Christianity called *Knowing and Doing. He devotes a chapter to our quiet time with God. The following excerpt is a useful guideline, particularly to young believers:
“15 MINUTES EACH DAY WITH GOD
1 minute: Pray that God will speak to you through his word
‘Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your law’ (Psalm 119:18).
2 minutes: Read the Bible slowly and carefully. Do not read too many verses (about ten verses is good). Read these verses two or three times.
5 minutes: Think about the verses you have read.
‘I will study your commandments and reflect on your ways’ (Psalm 119:15).
Ask yourself questions about what you have read, for example:
- What is the main thought (subject) in these verses?
- Do they teach me anything about God?
- Is there a lesson for me in these verses? For example,
- Is there a command I should obey?
- Is there a sin I should avoid?
- Is there an example I should follow?
- Is there a promise God has given me?
3 minutes: Write in your notebook any new thing that you have learned from the verses you have read. Writing will help you to remember.
4 minutes: Pray. There are five parts to prayer.
- Worship God: for his greatness, glory, wisdom and power. He is your creator and sustainer. He gives you life and breath and everything you need. He cares for you every day.
- Thank God for his love; for Jesus; for the Holy Spirit who lives in you; for the blessings you have today, and for the eternal life you have forever.
- Confess your sins: the wrong things you have done or said or thought; and the good things you should have done but did not do.
- Pray for yourself: for things you need; for guidance; for help with problems; for strength to live a true Christian life; for opportunities (chances) to help other people.
- Pray for other people: your family, friends, and neighbours. Pray for your country and government. Pray about the wider world: nations at war; people suffering from disease, poverty, and injustice; Christians suffering for their faith. Above all, pray that people everywhere will hear the Good News about Jesus Christ.”
As you develop your Christian walk with God, you will need more than 15 minutes. Indeed, the alarm clock will play a vital role in your spiritual growth as you fight the mind-over-sheets battle! Then the alarm clock will no longer feature so prominently as the Lord Himself will awaken you with His touch and burden you to pray for specific things at various times….
It’s an amazing journey! It is up to you how much you want to commit yourself to knowing God and living for His glory. Only you can decide!
*Note to Macedonian readers: Knowing and Doing is available in Macedonian. Please request your copy.
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Macedonia? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Macedonia in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
Hi Emilio - yes, no problem. Will get it into the post today! If you are on Twitter, you can find me at twitter.com/jigerimigeri where I sometimes post pictures of Macedonia (should really do this more often...) :) Bye for now. Olive.
DeleteDear Olive,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for the nice letter and postcard that you have sent to me from Macedonia, which I have received today, if you wish, you can see their picture at my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com
Thank you again for helping me in order to increase my collection of letters and stamps, I send again my sincere wishes of health, peace and happiness to you and all your loved ones.
A hug from Spain
Emilio Fernández
Glad I could help, Emilio. It's a lovely idea you have to collect letters in this way because they may become extinct as we rely more and ore on e-post! All the best, Olive.
Delete