O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

  - Psalm 63.1

The first word I say
In the morning when I arise:
May Christ's cross be my armor about me.

- Anonymous, Early Welsh

What is the first thing on your mind when you wake up in the morning?

To what do you devote the first hour of the morning? Is it in seeking the Lord Jesus Christ? And if not, then when does He figure into the list of your most important priorities?

Over the years I’ve met many pastors and church leaders who confess that they have but little time for prayer, Bible reading, and meditation. The day just breaks in upon them too fast. The day breaking in too fast is not really the problem though.

The problem is one of priorities.

Early in my walk with the Lord the man who led me to Christ, Rick Duwe, pressed and pressed me to devote the first hour of each day to being with the Lord. He taught me how to pray, gave me a Bible, and showed me how to read it profitably.

But nothing took.

I had all kinds of what I considered to be excellent reasons why I just couldn’t make that commitment, But Rick knew the real reason. He poked his finger in my chest at the student union one day and said, “T. M., you just don’t want to spend time with Jesus.” When I protested I did, he said, “You will do in your life only and exactly what you want to do, and nothing more. When you want to be with Jesus in the morning, to pray and meditate in His Word, you will find the way to do it.”

I had to confess that Jesus just wasn’t the first thing on my mind each day – or through most of the rest of the day, for that matter.

But thanks to Rick, and to the example of my wife, Susie,  I’ve learned to make those first hours His hours, so that, increasingly, He is the First Thing in my life first thing in the day, and, increasingly – praise God! – at all times.

What about you? What’s first thing in your life each day?

How hungry and thirsty for Jesus are you?

Psalm 27.4-6 (Joanna: “Immortal, Invisible God Only Wise”)
One thing we request but to dwell with You, Lord,
Your beauty to test and to think on Your Word.
In trouble You hide us secure in Your grace;
No foe may o’erride us: We sing of Your praise!

Lord, nowhere in heaven or on the earth, among no creatures or beings, spiritual or temporal, are there any as marvelous as You! Be my First Thing day by day, O Lord!