“God is in secret, and He sees us from the secret place; He does not see us as other people see us, or as we see ourselves. When we live in the secret place it becomes impossible for us to doubt God, we become more sure of him than anything else … Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on a wrong level all day; but swing the door wide open and pray to your Father in secret, and every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God. -Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, August 23.
I find this to be so true! I have made it a habit to get up early in the morning, read devotions, study guides, read my Bible (I change to different ones), pray from my prayer list, write down any answered prayers and new prayers, write in my “What are you thankful for” book, and finally write in my prayer journal where I discuss things in depth, praise, and than Father-God, and basically ramble on, which somehow lets me get my thoughts in order.
If I don’t do this every morning, my day goes awry. Every. Time. If I need some extra sleep, I can do an abbreviated version, which gets me through a little better, but if I skip my secret time with Father-God, it is so very noticeable for the rest of the day!
I started getting up at 4:00 am to have the quiet time with my Lord. Now I’m usually up without an alarm. The original idea of 4am came from a short book called Miracle Morning. God puts things in my way, for me to work through, notice, or stumble by (I’m allowed to ignore, but He will usually bring them back around).
I pray that everything I do public is “Stamped with the presence of God.”
Isaiah 25:3
3 Therefore, a strong people will honor you.
The cities of violent nations will fear you.
Isaiah 25:6-8
6 On this mountain,
the Lord of Armies will prepare for all the peoples a feast of choice meat,
a feast with aged wine, prime cuts of choice meat, fine vintage wine.
7 On this mountain
he will swallow up the burial shroud,
the shroud over all the peoples,
the sheet covering all the nations.
8 When he has swallowed up death once and for all,
the Lord God will wipe away the tears
from every face
and remove his people’s disgrace
from the whole earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah 25:9
9 On that day it will be said,
“Look, this is our God;
we have waited for him, and he has saved us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him.
Let’s rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”