Every Thought Captive: 7:46 AM

I turn in my bed in the early morning and look out the bay window to my left. A mist has fallen down on the earth while I was sleeping, clothing the barren ground, gracing the parched with drops of dew, and making the plain mysterious.

I think of Eden. I think of how Adam and Eve “heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” and how “there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.” How we were made from dust. That lifeless, dry dust that now sits under a blanket of refreshing grace from above . . . it's what I am made of. That dust that now soaks in jewels of water from the heavens is being softened and nourished and made useable.

We did not evolve by random chance, and do not wander about the earth with no purpose or hope after death, but God Himself breathed life into us and then we were, and it was good. He made us for His glory and fellowship and He knows the thoughts He has for us, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give us an expected end. He is merciful and piteous, remembering our frame and from where we come.

I rise from my place and prepare to worship the Lord in His sanctuary in just a few hours. I think of how God seems to love the morning. How many times “the morning” is mentioned over and over again in His book.

“My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.” Psalm 5:3

"For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Psalm 30:5

"It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning . . ." Lamentations 3:22-23

"And Abraham rose up early in the morning . . . " Genesis 22:3

"And Joshua rose early in the morning . . . " Joshua 3:3

"And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, [Jesus] went out . . ." Mark 1:35

It's 7:46 AM now, and I think, I want to be like the morning . . . to God. I want Him to descend upon my heart, wean it from this world, and through all its pulses move. I want to be fresh, pure, full of hope and beauty, absent of the many mistakes that will accumulate and weigh heavy on His Spirit as the clock leads the day onward. I want to seek Him early and find Him. I want to be full of mercy and joy, and let quietness and stillness be my strength.

I want to wait for Him, and be renewed. I want to be untainted by the daily grind and the many Martha things that steal away my focus from Him. I want my desire for Him to be stronger than my desire for temporal pleasures, so to rise from my warm bed in order to fellowship with Him is delightful to my soul, because of the love I have for Him, and the need I have for His gracing over me.

And dust will meet dew . . .

With my soul have I desired thee in the night;

yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early:

for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.