Why morning prayer time matters
For the vast majority of my life, I wasn’t a morning person. I suspect that if I took enough time off, my body would probably still return to its long-time circadian rhythm of a 2 a.m. – 10 a.m. sleep cycle. Like many, I’m simply not a morning person.
In one of my interviews with John Ortberg for Smart Ministry, he laughingly shared that sentiment. “My wife doesn’t want to be around me first thing in the morning, my kids don’t want to be around me first thing in the morning, and I don’t think Jesus wants to be around me first thing in the morning.” His point was that spiritual disciplines are very individual, and the concept of a morning quiet time with God isn’t universal. What matters is that we spend time with God during our day, not when.
I agreed with him completely, and still do—sort of.
Here’s the thing. In the Old Testament we’re frequently told to give God our “first fruits.” That’s not just because God wants the best. He knows that once the harvest gets under way, the crop is making its way to markets and tables and it’s easy to get busy and leave God out. Once our days get started, it’s harder to carve out dedicated time for God. More often than not, I found myself giving him little snippets of time here and there because I was in a hurry to get to the next thing I needed to do.
I’m still probably not at my best in the morning; but I have trained myself to wake up within a few minutes either way of 6:30 and be in my study ready to spend time with God after a quick stop to pour a glass of orange juice. And honestly, I still find it hard to stay focused on prayer while my mind is trying to take me to the day’s To-Do list. (Note to self: find some way to prevent my computer from even turning on before 7:00 a.m.) But I think God honors my desire to give him the “first fruits” of my time and attention.
The last thing I’d ever want to do is turn this into a legalistic thing that says there’s something wrong if I or anyone else fails to spend the first part of our days with God. I still think that you do so is more important than when you do so. But I do think there’s some biblical support for the idea that it’s a good thing to give God the “first fruits” of your day, and I can tell you from experience that—with practice—I’ve found that I’m spending higher quality time with him this way.
P.S. I’ve published my second commentary with Yahoo! News. If you’re interested, see: Despite Japan’s Fukushima Disaster, Nuclear Still Safe
