Start Each Day

Good Morning,

Psalm 5:1-3 (NIV)
Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my sighing.
Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.
In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.

How do you start each day that you have been blessed with by God? I'd love to tell you that I am exactly like the Psalmist and start my every day just as we read in these beautiful words. Well, I can't say that and be honest about it. There are too many days that I simply DON'T start my day in prayer...even though I know I should. David begins by asking God to hear him and hear his cry for help during "this" day. He then lays his requests before God and, here's sort of the key I think, he waits to hear from God EXPECTANTLY. I would think that means he has no doubt that God will, indeed, at least speak to him, if not immediately answer his prayerful requests.

My friends, THIS is exactly how each of us should begin every day we live...myself at the forefront of that statement. We need to awaken to each day and begin it in prayerful "sighing" and crying out to the Lord for His help, guidance, and direction for our day. Then, we need to put our requests to God and, again the key here, wait with true belief and expectation that He will speak to us and He will answer our prayers. Now that's not to say that He will answer our prayers exactly as we would like, but He will answer our prayers as He knows is best. (Remember...Sometimes the answer might be "No.")

What I've found when I DO remember to begin each day with God, speaking to Him, praying for Him to be with me, is that my day normally goes pretty well. Then, on the other hand, when I DON'T remember to begin my day in conversation with God, well, let's just say my day doesn't go as smoothly as I would like. And, duh, I often can't figure out what's wrong! There are times when I remember what I forgot to do as my day started when I say, "Hello, David!!! You sort of forgot to do something this morning, didn't you?" You see, there really are times I'm not the brightest bulb in the box about things, you know? Point being here that it is simply so much better to start our days, every day we live, in communication with the giver of those days.

Just a word more about the final line in these verses about expectation. Too often many of us don't have a true expectation that God will hear and answer our requests made prayerfully to Him. We sometimes, maybe too much, don't have the really faith and trust in Him that He's there with us and for us. I think that "expectation" is so very key to our cries to God; to our requests for Him to be sort of proactive in our lives. God wants us to have complete, 100% trust in Him. God wants us to have total faith in the fact that He will hear what we have said to Him and that He will do what's best for us in answer to our prayers. Faith and trust, you see, complete faith and trust, will lead to true expectation. True expectation leads to patient waiting for Him to answer our cries to Him.

Let us all do whatever it takes to remember to begin each day in prayer to our loving God. Let's put some reminder there by our bed which will help us to start our day as we know we should and as we know God would love us to do.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David