Two years ago, I attended a prayer meeting where the speaker was a Pastor I hadn’t met before. He was sharing testimonies and messages about a God who still lives and is ready to reveal Himself to those who seek after Him, hungering and thirsting for more.
While the testimonies were powerful, what impressed me the most was the joy on this Pastor’s countenance like I have never seen. As he spoke about Jesus as his Saviour and Lord, there was a tone in his voice which sounded like a melody. I left that meeting praying, “Lord, I want what he has. I want a relationship with you that will also bring me this joy I see on his face. I want to share you with others and speak from a personal experience with you as this Pastor does.”
Looking back, I can see how God started me on a journey since that moment. One of the first things He revealed to me was how He longs to spend daily, unrushed, meaningful time with me in the morning through prayer and the study of His Word. Jesus has become my example!
We read in Mark 1:35 that “very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (NIV). This is something that I had not practiced regularly, but as God opened my understanding of His Word more, I learned that it was part of Jesus’s life to spend His mornings with God in prayer. The second half of Isaiah 50:4 says, “He awakens Me morning by morning; He awakens My ear to hear as the learned” (NKJV). This verse tells us about Jesus and how God was waking Him up every morning for their time together.
Surrendering My Alarm Clock to God
God was calling me to surrender my sleep time, and when I got up in the morning, to Him. He was tugging at my heart to give Him my alarm clock, to give up making that choice of what time I should be up to pray and study. He was calling me to allow Him to make that choice for me, to wake me up when He wanted to talk to me. So, before bedtime, I started to pray, “Lord, please send your angels to wake me up when You think we should meet. Make sure that I am well rested and with a heart full of joy to meet you in the morning.”
The victory didn’t come easy. Even though I would say this prayer every night, I would still use my alarm in case I needed extra help in the morning. God remained faithful to my prayer and woke me up way before my alarm rang. We started a wonderful journey; Jesus would reveal Himself to me in new ways, my prayers became more fervent, and my understanding of God’s will in my life became clearer. However, I remember I felt like not getting up one Sabbath morning. The still, small voice impressed me, saying, “Would you like more sleep or more of the Holy Spirit?” I recognized then that God was very interested in blessing me, so I got up to pray for a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit for that day’s journey.
Having the alarm as a backup started to bother me because it felt as if I didn’t trust God enough. These thoughts often impressed me: “I know your day’s activities before you know them. Would you think that I would let you sleep and not be up in time for our time together long before your time to travel, to start work, or to attend a meeting? And if I was to wake you up later and you would miss one of these activities, maybe you just didn’t have to be there on that occasion.” I wrestled until I decided to cancel the alarm and trust God completely.
God didn’t disappoint. I have never been late to work, to catch an early bus, or to attend a meeting. Even when I would go to sleep very late, He would still wake me up only after a few hours to spend our time together before catching a flight.
Jesus Longs to Meet with Us
The point, however, is not when I wake up or whether I have an alarm. Instead, this journey has revealed that Jesus longs to meet me daily. He wants me to give Him my undivided attention. He knows how busy life can get and how easily distracted I can become, yet He desires to reveal Himself to me so that my heart overflows with the joy of His presence.
In the past two years, Jesus has taught me how to come to Him as I am. He helped me open my heart to Him as a Friend. He inspired me to allow Him to uproot selfishness, pride, apathy, judgmental thoughts, bitterness, and unforgiveness from my heart. He also calls me every morning to surrender to Him as Lord and Saviour, to give Him control over what I have, who I am, my attitudes, and even the use of my electronic devices. He invites me to surrender my job, relationships, calling to ministry, gifts, talents, and, more than anything, my brokenness to Him. Jesus is teaching me in our mornings together how to seek Him more in prayer and discover Him in His Word. He calls me to ask and receive a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit daily, revealing my great need for Him and how my heart is like a leaky vessel, needing to be filled repeatedly to glorify Him. As we talk together, He teaches me how to love my family sacrificially, even the unlovable. He sends me a message of His love to disciple others to Him and to live my God-given mission.
As I keep surrendering when I wake up in the morning to Jesus and meet with Him every morning, I learn more and more from Him and allow Him to enter my heart (Revelation 3:20) to cleanse it as He cleansed the temple in Jerusalem from “buyers and sellers.” As I claim the promises in Ezekiel 36:26-27, I experience the joy of knowing Jesus more deeply as my Lord and Saviour. My prayer, “Lord, I want what he has,” is answered through all this!
Call to Action
Would you surrender when you wake up in the morning to Jesus? Would you let Him wake you up whenever He wants?
I encourage you to start this amazing journey with Jesus.
Scripture noted as NIV above is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
Unless noted otherwise, scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
