Morning Assembly

This morning as I was driving, I noticed a flock of birds lined up on the street lamp posts, chirping away. I thought it was cute, and thinking out loud, I asked, "Why are they gathered up there like that?" Then the Holy Spirit whispered, "It is morning assembly." I almost rolled my eyes; in fact, I did and then I laughed; What did that even mean? 

Then He said, from a young age, we are taught to start our mornings with an 'assembly', a gathering that almost always involves prayer and asking God to see and guide us through the day. In preschool or nursery, children are taught how to say short prayers and even though they may not understand what they are doing, it becomes a part of them as they grow up. It doesn't matter which part of the world a person grows up in, a majority of educational systems begin each day with a morning assembly.

Somehow though, as we grow up, we begin to go away from these institutions; we don’t find this morning gathering important anymore. We become preoccupied with everything else and put God on the back-burner. Let's be honest, how many times have we immediately gone to our smart phones instead of thanking God for giving us life in the morning? We are more interested in the latest social media posts or the news that we missed over night. Rather than take a few seconds to acknowledge God when we wake up, we spend minutes and hours scrolling through our devices, acknowledging the world, and not the creator of it.

Once we make it out of bed, we are either in a hurry to get to work or to attend to other important life events, and we push away spending time with God. We tell oursleves that we will make it up some time during the day, or before we go to bed. Gradually, the morning assembly which was instilled in us growing up, loses its place and we don’t see the need to begin our day with God anymore. We blame adulthood and life for starting our day without the creator of the day. 

You see, this morning, I rushed through my time with God in order to make it to a meeting on time, and the Holy Spirit used the birds on the lampost to remind me about the importance of prioritizing God at the beginning of the day. God won’t force us to make time for Him but when we do, He will steer us in the direction of the plan that He has for us. Jesus started His day by talking to His Father in the morning (Mark 1:35). Pslams 143: 8 says, "Let me experience your faithful love in the morning, for I trust in you. Reveal to me the way I should go because I appeal to you."

Don’t begin your day without giving access to God. Spend quality time in His presence every morning, and give your attention to the One who knows what lies ahead of you so that He can direct your path. Like David, let's make the commitment to let God hear our voice in the morning (Ps 5:3) and with an expectant heart, receive from God as well.

Love,

Alice