Making the Most of Your Morning in 2023

It is a wonderful thing that God has let us live to see a new year and we praise the Lord for His precious promises. For each new day God gives us, He also gives us the strength and grace we need for that day. “…and as thy days, so shall thy strength be” Deuteronomy 33:25.

Psalm 90:12 says, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” God has packaged life into twenty-four-hour days. He has given promises for each day. We appropriate those promises to our lives by faith. I do not just want to be a Christian; I want to be happy in Jesus each day of my life.

The sun rises, the clock sounds, and you realize that God has given you another day to live. Make the most of this God-given day. This will be a wonderful day because “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).

Remember that it is vital to rise early enough to be able to give a portion of the morning to God, a portion to yourself, a portion to your loved ones, and a portion to the day that God has given you.

Read the Word of God and Pray Together Before Leaving Home Each Morning

Let us consider giving a portion of the morning to the Lord. The family should read the Word of God and pray together before leaving home each morning. However, this should not serve as a substitute for private time we have each day with the Lord.

Find a Quiet Place to Read the Word of God and Have a Systematic Plan for Your Personal Time with God

Plan what portion of the Bible you will read each morning. Choose a book and read that book passage by passage each morning until you have finished it.

Remember we are to read the Bible, search the Bible, compare scripture with scripture, memorize the Bible, and meditate on the Bible. Those are five things that we are to do with God’s Word. As you read a portion of scripture each day, God will speak to you through His Word. Mark the verses that speak to you.

Keep Your Bible Where You Can Find It

Have a pen and anything else you are using in your private devotions nearby.

Make a Prayer List of What You Are Going to Pray for Each Day

After you finish reading your Bible, it is time to pray. Make a prayer list of what you are going to pray for each day. Do not trust your memory with something so important. You can, of course, add things and people to your prayer list as the Lord speaks to you about it.

Memorize God’s Word

For example, one verse can be chosen for the entire week starting on Sunday and a new verse can be added each week. This does not sound like much but think about how few Christians memorize fifty-two verses of the Bible in a year.

Give a Portion of the Morning to Your Personal Life

After giving a portion of the morning meeting the Lord, give a portion of the morning to your personal life. Starting the morning right begins with a good night’s rest. Get to bed at a decent hour. I hope that you will decide that you are going to go to bed, if possible, at the same time each night and try to get up at the same time each morning. Use good sense about this. Many people find it helpful to have a good book near the bed to read a portion of just before retiring.

If I am having trouble sleeping, I do not keep heavy reading near my bed. I think that is a mistake. Keep light reading, biographical things, stories that inspire you, or things that will refresh you and encourage you. You want to get the right thing on your mind right before you go to bed. I am trying to rest in the Lord and rejoice in what God has given me.

If You Are Married, Pray With Your Mate Before You Go to Bed

Hold hands, kneel beside the bed, and thank the Lord for seeing you through the day. If you make it a practice to do this, I think it is a good one. I think it is great to kiss her goodnight and be refreshed in that.

Do not let the sun go down on your wrath. That means you may have to stay up a long time sometimes. But I cannot stand to go to bed angry or fussing about something. I want to go to bed in peace.

Plan the Night Before What You Are Going to Wear the Next Day

As a minister of the gospel, I may be called out in the middle night, and I do not want to be searching for clothes, shoes, or socks. I know what suit I am going to wear, what tie I am going to wear, what shirt I am going to wear, what shoes I am going to wear, and what socks I am going to wear. All of that is already decided.

Realize Your Schedule and the Responsibilities You Have in the Home

If you leave the house each morning, you must allow enough time in this portion of the morning for your household responsibilities. There are some things that ought to be done. You want to make sure that you are not rushed. Rushing out of the house and storming out is a terrible way to start the day. You have to allow enough time for your personal life. Allow the proper time for your personal hygiene and appearance each morning.

Give a Portion of the Morning to Others in the Family

I think that people in God’s work ought to especially take this to heart. You should love each other, encourage each other, greet one another, and help one another. When you get up in the morning, the first time you see your wife, speak to her. When you see your children, speak to them. Do not leave the home without hugging them, kissing them, and holding them. Do not allow them to leave without it. It is so important that you do this. May God help us to see this as a necessity.

Give a Portion of Each Morning to the Remainder of the Day

You may like to take a few moments to prepare a checklist of things that you want to attempt to accomplish during the day. Of course, it may work out during the day that you will need to eliminate some of those things.

The longer you live, the more you have to delegate and eliminate to get things accomplished. There are only twenty-four hours in the day. As a ministry enlarges, you must put other people to work. Two things a leader must always do is put other people to work and work hard yourself.

Before Everyone Leaves, Make Sure You Communicate

Do not let communication breakdown. Many a man has had a day messed up badly by not taking fifteen seconds to let his wife know where he will be and when he will call. Do not let your communication lines breakdown. This is so important.

My boys are grown. They still hug me. They have wives and children of their own. Before I hang up the phone, they still say, “I love you, Dad.” I tell them I love them. I never get off the phone without telling my wife I love her. I do not leave home without kissing her. She does not leave home without kissing me.

When my wife was just a little girl, her dad was a Baptist preacher. One day she and her mother were making him his favorite cake in the kitchen. My wife was five years old. She was excited as she could be about his return. She was going to surprise him. She heard a knock at the door and ran to the door to greet him and tell him she had made him a special cake. But it was not her dad. It was a member of the church. Her father had been to the funeral home and on the way back, he had been involved in a tragic automobile accident and had been killed. He never came home. She never got to tell him goodbye.

One of these days, it will be our last day. But even if we have many days to live, we ought to live like we might just see one another in heaven the next time. Do not let things get between you and your loved ones.

Satan can use the discouragement in your home to get you way off base in something else in the Lord’s work. All of those things are contagious. We ought to live joyfully with our wife as God’s Word says. We ought to love our children, realizing that God gave them to us. Teach your children to love this way.

The morning is an important part of the day that can never be replaced. May God help us to make the most of the morning.

Photo by Artem Sapegin on Unsplash