Let me share this excerpt with you about prayer… We all throw around the word prayer but the Bible is clear the importance of prayer. Every prayer is not just heard but change follows….

“For years, I battled getting up early in the morning for prayer. I knew that anytime during the day is acceptable to God. But I couldn’t seem to shake the conviction that early morning hours were ideal. The woman who taught me how to study and teach the Bible, commented that when our prayer time is at night, it’s like tuning our violin when the symphony is over. Why would we tune our instrument after its been played?

With the same reasoning, we need to begin our day with prayer to ensure we live in sync with God. I remember Joyce Meyer saying “Are you wholeheartedly chasing after God or he is just a fleeting thought from time to time?” Why would we spend only time in evening prayer after we have already stumbled through the day? We are walking around in the dark no matter how wise we think we are without God.

I was also aware that again and again, a morning time of prayer is referred to in the Bible. The one example that drew me to make a commitment to an early morning time with the Lord was that of Jesus Himself. Mark reveals that after a pressured- packed day of intense ministry, “very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

I felt God was directing me to establish a prayer time in the morning. “Go off into your secret place and your father will reward you outwardly.” For me that place is a chair I snuggle up in before the kids are awake. That is my time with my dad.  I find when I spend that time with Him, he sets the day in motion for me. I can discern His voice much easier when I make time for Him in private.

Back to the excerpt…. But I’m not a morning person, I told myself. So although I felt drawn to get up and pray in the mornings, and although I felt convicted of disobedience when I slept to the last minute without getting up for prayer, I still didn’t do it.

And then God spoke to me very firmly and clearly. As I was studying and meditating on His letters to the Sardis church in Revelations 3, His words, WAKE UP! lept off the pages. Have you ever needed to be woken up from a slumber of the day in and day out of your life? Do you ever even ask yourself, “Why am I here?” Well, you are here to serve God and others. You are here to save souls including your own. You are here for more than just getting up and going to work.

I knew He was not just calling, but commanding me to get up early and spend time with Him. So I went down to the gadget store and bought a clock that sounded like a major seven- fire alarm, and set it for thirty minutes before I usually got up. The first morning it went off, it really scared me. My heart was thumping out of my chest, and I knew there was no chance I was going to roll over and go back to sleep so I began praying.

It takes 28 days to create a habit but I promise you, it will change you for the better. I can’t wait to meet the Lord in my designated place at my designated time. I am making Him the priority just like He makes me His priority. We must want it bad enough and when we don’t sometimes God will rip the covers right off of us or allow the bottom to fall out of our lives to get our time and focus back on Him.

We don’t know what tomorrow will hold but we do know who holds our tomorrow. Heaven moving, nation changing, and spiritual transformation prayer requires acting on your commitment. If you press in, it will become the joy of your life. I don’t believe there is anything better than when God speaks to you…. My sheep know my voice and they follow. We are all following something or someone. The question we should ask ourselves is who?

Grace is not the excuse to live a sloppy life, its the power not to have to-JM

The Daniel Prayer