Prayer and getting up early
Mark 1:35 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.
I'm one of those people who sleeps through the alarm every morning. The radio will usually play for 45 minutes before my brain stops incorporating the news into dreams or hallucinations and switches the gears to wakefulness. I've known that the quietest time for me to be with God is when everyone else is sleeping. Even Jesus thought it was a great time to fellowship with DAD. I've made several attempts at early in the morning praying. The pattern goes as follows:
Week 1
day 1 - oversleep and recommit
day 2 - sleep terribly through the night because i'm so worried i might be oversleeping all night, 15 minutes before appointed time look at the clock and conclude those 15 minutes of shut eye could be very important, especially after that long night, then i oversleep and recommit
day 3 - wake up at alarm, sit in easy chair to pray before eating breakfast, think about breakfast alot, eat breakfast and read the good news (we should always read the good news before the worlds news), return to easy chair, and stare out the window, realize this is prayer time and repray for the same 5 things, go to work early
day 4 - wake up at alarm, eat breakfast, sit to pray, fall asleep
day 5 - wake up a little late, sit to pray, fall asleep
day 6 - weekend, sleep in
day 7 - Church day, will be doing plenty of prayer later, sleep in
Week 2
day 1-7 sleep in, i'll pray on the bike ride
things are different when i'm stressed out about something. i'm not sleeping well anyway and God is a good person to talk things out with. early morning prayer isn't so hard when i'm traveling out of my time zone and i can't sleep anyway. so the problem isn't ability, its motivation. its a weak link for me. its not that i don't belive that time in the early morning prayer closet isn't worthwhile, but its really a listening time more than anything, and i'm terrible at that. i get bored and easily distracted. i fall asleep.
i've been holding out on this blog entry this week and giving God permission to wake me up for some early morning communion. well i didn't do that until i ended up letting the sick dog out in the middle of the night. the next night my wife awoke and asked me to check on something. in hindsight it was probably angels jumping on the bed, since i didn't feel it but i was forced out of bed and had to lay awake for anymore problems for an hour. thinking God was up to something, i forced myself to lay awake and lift up some missionary friends. this morning, the dog was sick again at 5 am. i didn't crawl back in bed. i stayed up, had breakfast, read the good news, and sat on the couch with my coffee. i started to commune, but the dog started whining at me again. she suddenly became a tool of the enemy! i always suspected. so i took her for a walk and did my praying in tongues time. i still got to work early. i could have drawn it out. we'll see if he wakes me tomorrow. i've asked Him to tell me what to do or what to pray for when he wakes me.
i was sharing my weakness with someone and he assured me that when he fasts from sleep, his sleep is so deep that he isn't tired. that's not true for me though. like when i fast and i'm still hungry. maybe more on that tomorrow.
I'm one of those people who sleeps through the alarm every morning. The radio will usually play for 45 minutes before my brain stops incorporating the news into dreams or hallucinations and switches the gears to wakefulness. I've known that the quietest time for me to be with God is when everyone else is sleeping. Even Jesus thought it was a great time to fellowship with DAD. I've made several attempts at early in the morning praying. The pattern goes as follows:
Week 1
day 1 - oversleep and recommit
day 2 - sleep terribly through the night because i'm so worried i might be oversleeping all night, 15 minutes before appointed time look at the clock and conclude those 15 minutes of shut eye could be very important, especially after that long night, then i oversleep and recommit
day 3 - wake up at alarm, sit in easy chair to pray before eating breakfast, think about breakfast alot, eat breakfast and read the good news (we should always read the good news before the worlds news), return to easy chair, and stare out the window, realize this is prayer time and repray for the same 5 things, go to work early
day 4 - wake up at alarm, eat breakfast, sit to pray, fall asleep
day 5 - wake up a little late, sit to pray, fall asleep
day 6 - weekend, sleep in
day 7 - Church day, will be doing plenty of prayer later, sleep in
Week 2
day 1-7 sleep in, i'll pray on the bike ride
things are different when i'm stressed out about something. i'm not sleeping well anyway and God is a good person to talk things out with. early morning prayer isn't so hard when i'm traveling out of my time zone and i can't sleep anyway. so the problem isn't ability, its motivation. its a weak link for me. its not that i don't belive that time in the early morning prayer closet isn't worthwhile, but its really a listening time more than anything, and i'm terrible at that. i get bored and easily distracted. i fall asleep.
i've been holding out on this blog entry this week and giving God permission to wake me up for some early morning communion. well i didn't do that until i ended up letting the sick dog out in the middle of the night. the next night my wife awoke and asked me to check on something. in hindsight it was probably angels jumping on the bed, since i didn't feel it but i was forced out of bed and had to lay awake for anymore problems for an hour. thinking God was up to something, i forced myself to lay awake and lift up some missionary friends. this morning, the dog was sick again at 5 am. i didn't crawl back in bed. i stayed up, had breakfast, read the good news, and sat on the couch with my coffee. i started to commune, but the dog started whining at me again. she suddenly became a tool of the enemy! i always suspected. so i took her for a walk and did my praying in tongues time. i still got to work early. i could have drawn it out. we'll see if he wakes me tomorrow. i've asked Him to tell me what to do or what to pray for when he wakes me.
i was sharing my weakness with someone and he assured me that when he fasts from sleep, his sleep is so deep that he isn't tired. that's not true for me though. like when i fast and i'm still hungry. maybe more on that tomorrow.
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