Rising Early in the Morning.
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Over the past few months I’ve been very slowly reading multiple books on prayer by EM Bounds, and in around October of last year I read this line in his book that wrecked me:
‘A faith that cannot get up from the comfort of bed is a faith that is feeble and weak’
Man that hit me! At the time of reading that I had really been struggling to get up early and it really did not and does not help that I live with 10 college students who are all basically nocturnal in nature, staying up til like 2AM or 3AM a lot. Anyways, I read that line and I was convicted. Not of sin but of my poor morning discipline. But the Lord was not done convicting me on my morning routines..I began to notice a pattern in Scripture of literally every spiritual leader rising up early in the morning.
I read through the book of Joshua during my hiatus from podcasting and over and over again it says that Joshua ‘rose up early in the morning’...look at this.
In Joshua 3:1, it says Joshua ‘rose early in the morning’ and set out from Shittim. This was as Joshua was leading Israel into the promised land and obeying the voice of the LORD. Then a few chapters later in Joshua 6:12 Scripture says Joshua ‘rose early in the morning’ and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. This was during the fall of Jericho. It also says a few verses later in verse 15 that on the seventh day, the day Jericho fell, Joshua and his men rose early.
Noticing a pattern here? It continues in chapter 7 verse 18 when Scripture says ‘Joshua rose early in the morning’ and brought Israel near tribe by tribe. And then again in chapter 8 verse 10 when Scripture says Joshua ‘arose early in the morning’.
Now I believe every word in Scripture shares purpose, and it is not by coincidence that God’s Word tells us that Joshua arose early in the morning quite often.
On the surface that’s not really a detail worth remembering because it's not glamorous - we’d rather remember the walls falling after the trumpets sounded on the seventh day of marching - but what led to that public victory that is so well known was the private action of getting up early.
Now reading that in Joshua got me thinking of whether or not this growing theme I was noticing in Scripture that the people God used in incredible ways were people who got up early, so I did some research on it, and I was not disappointed.
There are three separate occasions where we’re told Abraham got up early in the book of Genesis, in Genesis 19;27, 21:14, and 22:3. Then we’re told of four separate occasions in Exodus where Moses got up early, in Exodus 8:20, 9:13, which, on both of those occasions, it was God instructing Moses to get up early, which I think is worth noting (food for thought), and then in Exodus 24:4 and 34:4 we’re given two more instances where Moses arose early, both times to seek the LORD in some way.
We see Gideon in Judges, the man whom God used to deliver Israel from the Midianites, arising early in the morning in Judges 6:38 and 7:1.
We see Samuel getting up early in 1 Samuel 15:12, and we see David arising early in 1 Samuel 17:20.
We also see the Psalmist in Psalm 119:147 getting up early saying ‘I rise before dawn and cry for help’. Essentially saying ‘I rise before the sun and pray to you’.
Now what is this pattern telling us & why is this important to you and me?
Well this pattern is showing us something that I'm guessing you would probably say is true of your life, and that is that we get up early for things that matter. With every person I just named, though I did not touch on what they did after they rose early, the common denominator is that they all rose for something very important to them.
And again I’m sure that’s true of us. Some of you get up early for work or for school, some of you get up really early when you are about to roadtrip or when you need to get to the airport. I know some of you have Bible studies early in the morning that you need to get up earlier to get to.
Point is, we are willing to get up early for things that matter to us. And when we take that and look at our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we see someone who willingly got up early to seek the Father, because His communion with the Father mattered very much to Him.
If you look at the gospel of Mark, you’ll see two separate occasions of Jesus getting up early, one in the first chapter of the book, the other in the last.
In chapter 1, after Jesus had a pretty normal day for Him that consisted of healing person after person after person non-stop until sundown, which I’m sure is a pretty busy day, it says that Jesus in verse 35 ‘rose very early in the morning, while it was still dark, and he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed’.
Jesus had a long day. I’m sure He had every excuse not to get up early the next morning, but His communion with the Father mattered THAT much to Him that He got up, went out, and sought the Father in prayer.
Now the other example we see of Christ getting up early can be found in the last chapter of Mark, Mark 16, when it says in verse 2 that Mary, Jesus’ mother, and Mary Magdalene rose ‘very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen’ and went to Jesus’ tomb…and as they went to see their supposed dead Lord, they found what? They found their Lord nowhere to be found, because He had risen from the dead.
As I was planning out this podcast, I came across an article on DesiringGod about this same subject that was written by David Mathis and he articulated much better than I am right now, so go check that out. But anyways, in Mathis’s article he wrote of Jesus being gone when the Mary’s visited His tomb early in the morning as ‘fitting’.
He said it ‘It is fitting that when Jesus rose from the dead, he rose early. He had something to do. There would be no sleeping in when the new age was dawning. He rose with purpose. He rose early’.
And praise God He did!
Remember we get up early for things that are important and matter to us.
And praise God Jesus died and ROSE from the dead for you and for me.
We mattered enough to Jesus for Him to die & rise up from the dead. And the Father mattered enough for Jesus for Him to rise early and seek Him, to commune with Him, to carry out His will, and to bring Him glory.
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Listen, I know there are many listening right now who do not do a great job of getting up early. I get it. I’ve been there.
But I want to ask you…how important is your relationship with God? How much does He matter to you?
Are you willing to rise early and seek the Father just like Jesus did?
Now I know I’ve said this before but I want to say it again… I am someone who aspires to be an impactful leader in and for the name of Christ, and it just blows my mind how STRONG the connection is between the most impactful leaders in and for the name of Christ in the Bible and their habit and practice of getting up early in the morning.
Abraham rose early.
Moses rose early.
David rose early.
Jesus rose early.
Why shouldn’t we?
There is something special about getting up before the sun and spending time with Jesus. It’s very intimate and I highly HIGHLY encourage those of you who don’t rise early to begin doing.
And for those of you who do, man keep going. I admire you! Sometimes we need encouragement to keep doing what we’re doing especially when it is starting to become more of a drag and we don’t feel we are seeing any fruit…and if that’s you I implore you to keep rising early.
Also EM Bounds would say your faith is not feeble and weak, and that’s a W.
For the rest of you reading, I have a challenge:
Get up 15 minutes earlier for a week and dedicate it to pursuing Christ.
Lose those 15 minutes of sleep for 15 minutes of Jesus. It’ll be worth it. I promise.
I love you all.
God bless.
