Don’t Waste Your Mornings
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Pastor John, in yesterday's episode, in episode 636,
00:00:09.680 | you gave us half a dozen reasons
00:00:11.440 | why we addictively grab our phones
00:00:13.720 | when we wake up in the morning.
00:00:15.240 | And you said that you had a remedy, a better course forward.
00:00:18.540 | Please share that with us here today on the podcast.
00:00:21.220 | - It might be helpful just to mention,
00:00:24.180 | just to name the six things that I said
00:00:27.840 | tend to draw me to my phone in the morning.
00:00:30.680 | I said there's a novelty hunger.
00:00:33.000 | I said there's an ego hunger.
00:00:35.260 | I said there's a entertainment hunger.
00:00:38.800 | And then I said there's these three avoidances,
00:00:41.760 | like boredom avoidance.
00:00:43.360 | I just don't wanna, you know, a boring day.
00:00:45.260 | There's responsibility avoidance
00:00:47.040 | and there's hardship avoidance.
00:00:48.800 | So there are pretty strong things
00:00:52.320 | that are keeping us in bed and keeping us on our devices.
00:00:57.620 | But there is a better way.
00:00:59.800 | And here's what points to the need for it.
00:01:03.400 | What if you are the first one to the news
00:01:07.320 | and it is horrible news?
00:01:09.980 | Or what if your search for some ego candy finds ego acid
00:01:14.980 | and people have hated you overnight?
00:01:19.520 | And what if you spend five minutes
00:01:22.960 | getting yourself happily entertained in the morning
00:01:26.280 | rather than facing the responsibilities
00:01:28.400 | of the day immediately?
00:01:29.680 | And you find at the end of those five minutes
00:01:32.840 | that they have drug you down into silly, demeaning,
00:01:37.800 | small-minded, hollow, immature frame of mind.
00:01:42.800 | Was it worth it?
00:01:45.360 | And what if you take five minutes to avoid the boredom
00:01:50.360 | and responsibility and hardship of the day,
00:01:53.160 | only to find at the end of those five minutes of avoidance,
00:01:57.920 | you are spiritually, morally, emotionally less able
00:02:02.920 | to cope with reality in the day than you were before.
00:02:07.200 | Was it worth it?
00:02:08.760 | So I think there is a better way to begin the day.
00:02:13.520 | And it will require some decisions before the morning.
00:02:18.520 | It never works to make last minute efforts
00:02:22.840 | to decide to do something different.
00:02:24.480 | You need to decide 12 hours earlier
00:02:26.600 | what this crisis moment is going to look like.
00:02:29.760 | It will take some planning.
00:02:31.440 | It will take some alarm clock thinking and setting.
00:02:36.280 | You know, just a little princess here.
00:02:37.920 | I wrote to the guys at the ESV and I said,
00:02:41.640 | "Is there a device?
00:02:43.000 | Is there a way to use the ESV app or the ESV
00:02:46.280 | so that you could set your alarm
00:02:49.240 | to go off with scripture reading?"
00:02:50.960 | And they wrote back and said, "Oh, that's a great idea."
00:02:52.880 | And they said, "It really is possible."
00:02:54.280 | And it was so complicated, I couldn't figure it out.
00:02:57.400 | But I would just say to somebody,
00:02:58.960 | if you can figure that out, that's a great idea.
00:03:01.720 | In other words, just go ahead and set your alarm
00:03:04.120 | to start reading the Bible to you.
00:03:06.480 | And I think they're going to work on making it simpler.
00:03:10.240 | So close that princess.
00:03:11.620 | What we want in the morning routine
00:03:15.920 | is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
00:03:18.760 | We want something that gives us a zeal
00:03:21.480 | for the glory of Christ for the day's work.
00:03:24.360 | We want to be strengthened
00:03:26.680 | to face whatever the day may bring.
00:03:30.560 | We want something that gives us joyful courage
00:03:34.120 | to resolve, to count others better than ourselves
00:03:37.720 | and pursue true greatness, like Jesus said,
00:03:41.000 | by becoming the servant of all.
00:03:43.680 | That's the real agenda in the morning.
00:03:46.440 | Very few of us wake up strengthened
00:03:49.960 | to do all those glorious things
00:03:52.000 | that we get to join Jesus in doing.
00:03:54.920 | So the new course for the morning,
00:03:58.040 | I think, is laid out in the Psalms.
00:04:00.200 | And here's a key verse, Psalm 5:3.
00:04:04.640 | "O Lord, in the morning, you hear my voice.
00:04:09.640 | In the morning, I prepare a sacrifice for you,
00:04:15.160 | and I watch."
00:04:18.200 | So let the first thing out of your mouth in the morning,
00:04:22.480 | while you're still on the pillow,
00:04:24.940 | let the first thing be a cry to God.
00:04:29.240 | I love you, Lord.
00:04:30.440 | I need you, Lord.
00:04:32.160 | Help me, Lord.
00:04:34.020 | That is the first cry out of my mouth in the morning.
00:04:36.800 | I need you again today.
00:04:41.040 | Then prepare a sacrifice and watch.
00:04:44.200 | I think that sacrifice is my body
00:04:47.800 | and my attention devoted to him.
00:04:52.560 | I watch for the Lord to show up and do what?
00:04:57.480 | What am I watching for?
00:04:59.720 | And Psalm 143 puts it like this, verse eight.
00:05:02.840 | "Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love,
00:05:06.920 | for in you I trust.
00:05:09.480 | Make me know the way I should go,
00:05:12.040 | for to you I lift up my soul."
00:05:15.160 | So I'm looking, I'm on the lookout
00:05:17.720 | for the steadfast love of God,
00:05:20.800 | and I'm on the lookout for it in his word.
00:05:23.960 | And then Psalm 90, verse 14,
00:05:26.320 | tells me how to think about praying for it when it comes.
00:05:31.320 | Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love.
00:05:35.480 | Don't just look for it and see it and here it comes,
00:05:39.640 | but ask the Lord, "Oh, satisfy me with this steadfast love
00:05:44.600 | that I may rejoice and be glad in you all our days."
00:05:48.680 | So we watch in God's inspired word
00:05:52.720 | for revelations of his steadfast love
00:05:56.280 | and his guidance for our lives
00:05:59.320 | and a profound sense of satisfaction in our souls
00:06:04.320 | that he is beautiful and that he cares for us.
00:06:09.320 | Psalm 119, "My eyes are awake before the watches
00:06:13.760 | of the night that I may meditate on your promise."
00:06:17.720 | Psalm 139, 17, "How precious to me are your thoughts,
00:06:22.720 | O God, I awake and I am still with you."
00:06:27.520 | So I suggest that before you go to bed tonight,
00:06:32.520 | you make some choices and some plans
00:06:37.800 | and that you free yourself from the candy addictions
00:06:42.800 | and the habits of avoidance
00:06:45.480 | that have been ruining the strengthening potential
00:06:50.480 | for the beginning of the day.
00:06:54.320 | - Beautiful, those are wise words, Pastor John, thank you.
00:06:58.960 | And if you have a question
00:07:00.280 | about technology habits in your life,
00:07:02.680 | about how you use your phone or Facebook
00:07:04.780 | or Twitter or email,
00:07:06.420 | we would love to get those questions from you.
00:07:08.200 | Put your question into an email
00:07:10.120 | and send it to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:07:14.600 | We are closing in on the weekend
00:07:16.120 | and we are closing in on 700 episodes now
00:07:18.560 | in the Ask Pastor John podcast archive
00:07:21.000 | and you can find that at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:07:26.000 | There you can listen to our most popular episodes,
00:07:28.040 | you can search all the episodes that we have,
00:07:30.040 | you can send in a question,
00:07:31.320 | you can download the apps for Apple and Android devices
00:07:34.360 | and you can subscribe to the podcast feed
00:07:36.700 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:07:41.460 | I'm your host Tony Reinhke, we'll see you on Monday.
00:07:43.860 | (upbeat music)
00:07:46.440 | (upbeat music)
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