I am not sure why, but for some reason, I find myself waking up in the early morning with the inability to return to sleep and the need to talk with God…these early am prayers are precious to my heart. Time alone with just me and God…time to reflect on my life and the life of my family.
Time alone to think about the past and to rejoice in the future.
It’s quiet in my home at 4 am or 5 am or whatever early am time I am awakened by God. It is a unique quiet…a different kind of quiet. I do not awaken frustrated that I cannot sleep as sometimes I do…rather, I awaken with the knowledge that if I will get up and make the time to be “present” with God, I will receive a blessing that only He can give.
God chooses very interesting times in my life to draw me to this early am prayer….not at all what I would chose…when I had little twin babies and so very much needed my sleep, I would be awakened in the wee hours to spend time with Him. When I have been up all night with worry over a daughter who was out with friends and she comes in…I remained awake….with God.
When I had a big project at work and needed my rest so desperately so that I would do well the next day, I could not sleep until God and I talked.
And, very early on I learned that IF I would obey his calling of my name and make time to be in prayer and talking, He would carry me through whatever came my way the next day.
God is like that. He loves it when we sit beside him, lay our weary heads on his shoulder and talk. He loves it when we kneel beside him and share our joys and our tender moments of life. He loves it when we share our happy moments and he loves us through our sad.
Like a good parent, God just likes us to be with him. He knows the more we are present with Him, the more of Him is present WITHIN us.
And, Him being God….blesses us in ways no other can bless us….
I have a favorite quote, “when you get to the bottom of yourself, you get to the beginning of God”….this is not a thing you do one time in your life. I believe you do this again and again, because in our humanity, we forget to keep God front and center. We don’t heed his calling and go be with Him…we try to take on things alone. And, we cannot. So, He allows us to get to the bottom of ourselves so that we are forced to come sit at His feet and take time to be with Him…to talk with Him…it’s not a thing He does so much out of discipline of us, although I think it can be, but mostly He does this out of love…because he knows that the more we are with Him, the more of our worth, value and purpose can be made known to us…
Each of us is here on earth for a brief time and for a Holy purpose. Some of us “get it” early on that God has a purpose and from early on, we head that direction. Some, not so much. Some of us take time to grow, develop. The great thing is, God loves us regardless of which we are..all He asks is that as we search for our purpose that we use Him as our guide…and live it out in His name.
We do that by using those gifts He gave us to use…His Word, the avenue of prayer, the gift of family, the treasure of church fellowship, and other things.
Those who are wise…or maybe who are humbly aware know the value of using these gifts to draw themselves closer to God. I love those who have this figured out…I love sitting in the presence of a Godly man or woman who is authentic in his/her walk with God. They seem to have a peace about them which is found through many, many hours spent with God. They are humble…they are gentle, their eyes are kind and their hearts are soft. They don’t seem to talk a lot…maybe because they do all their talking with God.
The words which they use when they do speak are provoking because of their insight…
People who are close with God are different…you can feel their love of God is greater than their love of life….
They have answered the call many early mornings to go be with Him. They have stayed on their knees more than on their feet. They have laid down their burdens at the feet of the only one who can really remove them. The know the value of spending time with the only one who can truly make a difference.
I want to be one of these people…
Blessings,
Lesa
