(upbeat music) - Pastor John, in yesterday's episode, in episode 636, you gave us half a dozen reasons why we addictively grab our phones when we wake up in the morning. And you said that you had a remedy, a better course forward. Please share that with us here today on the podcast.

- It might be helpful just to mention, just to name the six things that I said tend to draw me to my phone in the morning. I said there's a novelty hunger. I said there's an ego hunger. I said there's a entertainment hunger. And then I said there's these three avoidances, like boredom avoidance.

I just don't wanna, you know, a boring day. There's responsibility avoidance and there's hardship avoidance. So there are pretty strong things that are keeping us in bed and keeping us on our devices. But there is a better way. And here's what points to the need for it. What if you are the first one to the news and it is horrible news?

Or what if your search for some ego candy finds ego acid and people have hated you overnight? And what if you spend five minutes getting yourself happily entertained in the morning rather than facing the responsibilities of the day immediately? And you find at the end of those five minutes that they have drug you down into silly, demeaning, small-minded, hollow, immature frame of mind.

Was it worth it? And what if you take five minutes to avoid the boredom and responsibility and hardship of the day, only to find at the end of those five minutes of avoidance, you are spiritually, morally, emotionally less able to cope with reality in the day than you were before.

Was it worth it? So I think there is a better way to begin the day. And it will require some decisions before the morning. It never works to make last minute efforts to decide to do something different. You need to decide 12 hours earlier what this crisis moment is going to look like.

It will take some planning. It will take some alarm clock thinking and setting. You know, just a little princess here. I wrote to the guys at the ESV and I said, "Is there a device? Is there a way to use the ESV app or the ESV so that you could set your alarm to go off with scripture reading?" And they wrote back and said, "Oh, that's a great idea." And they said, "It really is possible." And it was so complicated, I couldn't figure it out.

But I would just say to somebody, if you can figure that out, that's a great idea. In other words, just go ahead and set your alarm to start reading the Bible to you. And I think they're going to work on making it simpler. So close that princess. What we want in the morning routine is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

We want something that gives us a zeal for the glory of Christ for the day's work. We want to be strengthened to face whatever the day may bring. We want something that gives us joyful courage to resolve, to count others better than ourselves and pursue true greatness, like Jesus said, by becoming the servant of all.

That's the real agenda in the morning. Very few of us wake up strengthened to do all those glorious things that we get to join Jesus in doing. So the new course for the morning, I think, is laid out in the Psalms. And here's a key verse, Psalm 5:3. "O Lord, in the morning, you hear my voice.

In the morning, I prepare a sacrifice for you, and I watch." So let the first thing out of your mouth in the morning, while you're still on the pillow, let the first thing be a cry to God. I love you, Lord. I need you, Lord. Help me, Lord. That is the first cry out of my mouth in the morning.

I need you again today. Then prepare a sacrifice and watch. I think that sacrifice is my body and my attention devoted to him. I watch for the Lord to show up and do what? What am I watching for? And Psalm 143 puts it like this, verse eight. "Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust.

Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul." So I'm looking, I'm on the lookout for the steadfast love of God, and I'm on the lookout for it in his word. And then Psalm 90, verse 14, tells me how to think about praying for it when it comes.

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love. Don't just look for it and see it and here it comes, but ask the Lord, "Oh, satisfy me with this steadfast love that I may rejoice and be glad in you all our days." So we watch in God's inspired word for revelations of his steadfast love and his guidance for our lives and a profound sense of satisfaction in our souls that he is beautiful and that he cares for us.

Psalm 119, "My eyes are awake before the watches of the night that I may meditate on your promise." Psalm 139, 17, "How precious to me are your thoughts, O God, I awake and I am still with you." So I suggest that before you go to bed tonight, you make some choices and some plans and that you free yourself from the candy addictions and the habits of avoidance that have been ruining the strengthening potential for the beginning of the day.

- Beautiful, those are wise words, Pastor John, thank you. And if you have a question about technology habits in your life, about how you use your phone or Facebook or Twitter or email, we would love to get those questions from you. Put your question into an email and send it to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

We are closing in on the weekend and we are closing in on 700 episodes now in the Ask Pastor John podcast archive and you can find that at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. There you can listen to our most popular episodes, you can search all the episodes that we have, you can send in a question, you can download the apps for Apple and Android devices and you can subscribe to the podcast feed at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

I'm your host Tony Reinhke, we'll see you on Monday. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)