WAKING UP WITH JESUS
The Day Dawns
Praise
Read pages 201-202 in Life Without Lack
When you wake up, enjoy this morning meeting with Jesus first thing.
“It is fitting that we arise with thankfulness and praise to God. This is fundamental and will be a natural (and supernatural!) beginning to your day after having retired in faith and prayer. The supposition is that when you wake rested you are apt to find the morning beautiful.” (Taken from Life Without Lack by Dallas Willard, page 201. Copyright © 2018 by Willard Family Trust. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. www.thomasnelson.com)
If you would like, walk outdoors or throw open the window to soak up the goodness and beauty of the new day. Enjoy the pattering rain, singing birds, new fallen snow, or pink tinted sky. Whatever this morning brings you is beauty from his mighty hand. God – thank you for this fresh new day. It is a brand-new beginning and you are within me.
Try to be alone during this time and consider kneeling for a few moments. Welcome Jesus into your heart and day. Renew your desire and commitment to stay with him in each moment.
Petition
Read pages 202-203 in Life Without Lack
“Having risen in praise and thankfulness, then you pray for yourself, for the people in your life, and for the things you are facing that day.
Declare your dependence upon God, asking him to remove all fear and to fill you with his love for your life and all that enters it. This is where you move from praise to genuine love for the life God has given you. Do you love your life? Does the love of God come through you to everything you deal with in your life? This is how you will carry Christ through the day.
So, if you have specific concerns, call them out, lay them before the Lord, and submit them to his care.”
“Prayer is not the same thing as worrying. …Address God, tell him what you’re hoping for, and then watch for how the hand of God works through the day.
This can also be a time of confession, in which you ask for the strength to deal with the failures you experience day by day.
Ask in particular for the faith, death to self, and love that make the Shepherd’s sufficiency your own.”
“Once you have gotten into this mode, you will not find it a problem to begin your day consciously in his presence. This is not more work; this is joy.” (Taken from Life Without Lack by Dallas Willard, pages 202-203. Copyright © 2018 by Willard Family Trust. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. www.thomasnelson.com.)
Psalm 97:11 Light is sown for the righteous. And gladness for the upright in heart. 12. Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous. And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.