7 Easy Ways to help you start your day with God.
We all have a routine in the morning. Some are planned out because of time restrictions and others we have created out of habits. And lets be real some of those habits are good and some of those habits are bad.
But there is one morning habit we should develop as Christians. And that is to start our day with God!
Sounds simple enough, but it’s easy to neglect! Life gets busy and we get sucked into all kinds of vortexes. I mention this in My Christian Routine article. And sadly the first thing we boot out is our time with God. I’m guilty of it!
I like what Saint Francis de Soles said. It’s sobering…
Every Christian needs a half-hour of prayer each day, except when he is busy, then he needs an hour.
Saint Francis de Soles
How true is that!? Our natural response when we are busy is to have less time with God when the greater truth is we need more time with Him. That way He can give us strength, wisdom, and peace through the day!
So, lets now take a look at some practical ways we can develop a healthy habit of starting our day with God.
How to Start Your Day with God
Below are 7 key things we can put into practice that will helps us connect with the Lord and safeguard our time with Him. Which is the main battle. The devil loves to distract us and steal our time with things less valuable.
Now making new habits can be hard. According to a study done in 2009 it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days for someone to form a new habit! This probably why most people fall off the bandwagon when things to don’t change quickly. (Source)
So, some of these things might take time to develop, and that’s ok. Keep trucking along and if you slip. Get back on that horse and ask God to give you strength and grace to develop your mornings.
1. Go To Bed Early
To really enjoy your mornings you need to have enough rest the night before. Staying up till 2am and getting up 7am is going to effect you physically and mentally.
There are many benefits of going to bed early and just to name one is that it can be preventative measure for certain diseases. (Source)
So, if you are a night owl, try working on that and slowly start going to bed earlier. Try to aim for 7-8 hours of sleep.
2. Make It A Priority
If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse. -Anonymous
If you want to start your day with God then it has to become a priority. It needs to go to the top of the list of things to do in the morning. And if you don’t have enough time, then you make it a priority to set your alarm 15-30min earlier.
It will be an adjustment, and your flesh isn’t going to like it. But the reward out weights the hard transition. And let’s be real…God has done so much for us. We should make it a priority to meet with Him in the morning.
3. Keep It Simple
Your time with God in the morning doesn’t have to be some huge ordeal. It’s easy to want to whip out books, journals, highlighters, and have the perfect worship music playing in the background.
And don’t get me wrong you are more than welcome to have an extended devotional time and do all those things.
But really just you, God, and your Bible is all you need. Don’t make it a mission in the morning. Your whole goal is to just meet with Him and talk. It’s not about the “doing”, but the “being” with Him.
4. Turn Off Your Phone
Cell phones…I have a love hate relationship with them. Love how they make life convenient and easy. Like checking to really see if that clearance price is a good deal or not. But the flip side these little monsters are programed to be time suckers. They distract us and eat up an hour like it’s nothing.
And many of us, including myself have a habit of “checking” our phones in the morning. We can easily waste 5-30min on our phone in the morning and neglect our time with the Lord.
Do we really want to spend time with our phone in the morning? Or do we ant to spend time with God in the morning? This all goes back to priorities.
If it’s the later the best way to take control is to turn off your phone. Turn it off before bed and don’t turn it on until you and Jesus had time together.
If you NEED your phone to be on for other reasons. Leave it on in a different room. Not in your bedroom or where you are going to spend time with God.
5. Don’t be In A Hurry
Here is a BIG one. A lot of times we want to spend time with God, because we know it’s something we are supposed to do. We want to check off that box as soon as we can and call it done.
The thing is spending time with the Lord should not be looked at as a task. The faster I get it done the better.
Imagine meeting up with a significant other or family member and they kept looking at their watch and pressuring you to hurry up so they can go. You would be hurt by that and it would cause your relationship to struggle.
It’s the same with our relationship with God.
And I am not saying not to have a time limit. Many of you will need to with work and kids. What I am saying is don’t rush the time you have allotted with the Lord.
If it’s 10 minuets make it a full 10 of minuets of devoted time with Him. Not you checking the clock 7 times to see if your 10 minuets is up yet.
If you struggle with this I recommend sticking a piece paper on your clock so you can’t check it. I’ve done it before. It really does help.
6. Let the Lord Speak To You
The whole point of starting your day with the Lord is to communicate. For you to share with Him and for Him to share with you. He could remind you of a verse, or Bible story, or show you something in vision, or reveal something to you from a dreamyou had the night before. God speaks in many ways, but most of the time we don’t hear Him because we are so busy and we don’t stop to listen.
So set sometime while in prayer to listen to the Holy Spirit. And most of all enjoy God’s presence. Sometimes just praying and being in God’s presence is all your heart needs. It’s a healing balm. Stress, worry, fear, hurt have no chance when God shows up!
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. – 2 Corinthians 3:17 NIV
And remember whatever you hear or sense must line up with the Word of God. Anything contrary to His word is not of Him.
7. Do It Daily
It’s easy meet with God in the morning once. But it’s when it becomes daily that we start to really see changes in our life. We see a change in our attitude, the way we speak, and even with what happens with our day.
So, I want to encourage you to keep starting your morning with God. Even if you miss a day or two. Get back at it. Keep pushing and pressing into this. It’s going to take time and practice to make this a discipline.
Don’t get frustrated with yourself and abandon it completely. Keep going! You got this!
More On Mornings with God
If you would like to grow more in your morning routine with the Lord. Please check out my other articles on the topic! I hope they help you in your walk with the Lord.
Well, hopefully these 7 key things to help you start your day with God encouraged and inspired you to set time aside every morning to meet with the Lord. And my prayer is that those times would be filled with God’s presence, love, and peace.
I’m a big fan of comments so feel free to leave me one below. I would love to know what God is doing in your life.
Melissa is a passionate minister, speaker and an ongoing learner of the Bible. She has been involved in church and vocational ministry for over 18 years. And is the founder of Think About Such Things. She has the heart to equip the saints by helping them get into the Word of God and fall more in love with Jesus. She also enjoys family, cooking, and reading.
She has spoken in churches in California, Oregon, Texas, and Mexico and has been featured in Guidepost Magazine and All Recipes Magazine. Read More…