The Best Time of Day to Spend with the Lord Jesus:
Scenario 1: The alarm goes off in the morning, you roll out of bed and start to get ready, already anxious about your day. During a hurried breakfast, you catch up on news, texts, and e-mail on your smartphone. You eventually set off, preoccupied with your to-do list.
Scenario 2: The alarm goes off in the morning, and you begin your day by saying, “Lord Jesus, I love You.” You get up and spend some time to talk with Him in prayer and to read His Word. You’re refreshed by Him and nourished by His Word. Your day will be busy, but you feel strengthened and supplied for the challenges ahead. You eat breakfast and head out for the day.
We’d probably all prefer the second scenario. Our spiritual life would benefit greatly and maybe even change dramatically if we developed a habit of starting our day with the Lord each morning. But building up any habit takes more than fleeting inspiration, and it helps if we see why it’s worthwhile.
Why is daily time with the Lord so important?
Here are just three reasons.
1. Our spiritual health depends on it
We can only expect to be physically healthy if we eat enough food every day. Sure, we can get some calories by eating a quick donut, but it’s better for our health if we take time to eat a nourishing meal. Similarly, we can only expect to be spiritually healthy if we take adequate time daily to feed on God’s Word in prayer and fellowship with Him.
2. Our spiritual growth depends on it
First Peter 2:2 says, “As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow…” Just as babies need to eat food every day to grow, we need to eat spiritual food every day to grow in the Lord. By spending time each morning with Christ in His Word we can be fed and grow in His life.
3. Our relationship with Christ depends on it
To have meaningful relationships with people requires spending time with them. E-mail and texting are good, but they’re not the same as speaking with someone in person. As we spend actual time with others, we get to know them on a deeper level. Sometimes we have to rearrange our schedules or sacrifice getting things done, but developing our relationships is worth the sacrifice to be together face-to-face, speaking what’s on our heart.
Time spent with the Lord is even more critical. Jesus Christ is a wonderful person who lives in us, and who wants us to know Him. For our relationship with Him to go beyond an objective or superficial level, we have to “sacrifice” some of the time we spend busy with other things in order to be with Him each morning. We have to spend actual time being with Him. As we open our hearts to Him, speaking to Him in prayer and letting Him speak to us in His Word, we get to know Him personally and deeply.
The Best Time Of The Day
The Lord Jesus wants a living and personal relationship with us, not a formal and formulaic one. We can, and should, contact Him anytime, anywhere, throughout the day and before we go to bed at night. He’s so available and near to us in our spirit!
But the best time for us to have a little longer personal time with Him is in the morning.
The Bible shows us a good picture of this in Exodus 16. This chapter tells us that God fed His people with manna as they journeyed in wilderness. He didn’t send the manna at noon, in the afternoon, or at night. It arrived fresh every morning with the dew.
If you didn’t get up early enough, you would miss it, because as the sun became hot, the manna melted. Today, God wants to refresh us and nourish us with spiritual “manna” in His Word every morning. This way, before the “heat” and trials of the day begin, we’re refreshed and equipped with Christ to face the situations that come our way.
Written by Deb Kosemund Carlson. Follow her on facebook
