Help Comes In the Morning!

In his book, THE INNER LIFE, Andrew Murray says that morning has always been considered the time best suited for personal worship by God’s servants. Most Christians regard it as a duty and a privilege to devote some portion of the beginning of the day to seek fellowship with God. Many Christians observe the morning watch, while others speak of it as the quiet hour, the still hour, or the quiet time. All these, whether they think of a whole hour or half an hour or a quarter of an hour, agree with the Psalmist when he says, “In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” This world is plagued with poverty in one form or another. Ever since the fall of man the poor have been present among us. Poverty is an enemy and a threat that produces fear to many and a threat to us all. How can the fearful and poor be helped? They can be helped in the morning! Poverty is the result of separation from God even if many seemingly innocent people have inherited this problem from others. Therefore the answer to poverty is a renewed relationship with Him. Education may be helpful to someone temporally, but this will not necessarily give fellowship with God. There can not be much hope in educating a fool who says that there is no God. Knowledge can help us on our way, but it may help speed us along in the wrong direction. There is help for the poor in the morning. When the poor were neglected in the first century the Apostles gave help to the poor by prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6). Victory over poverty comes from God. “I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. Surely the righteous will praise your name and the upright will live before you” (Psalm 140:12-13). Oh, if only the poor would look to the One who can help in the mornings! There are lots of good things waiting for the poor and the poor in Spirit who will look for help where help can be given! The reason for poverty is broken relationships. The deliverance from poverty, therefore, is the restoring of relationships. Relationships are restored by a determination to get the witness of God’s Spirit within us in the morning by prayer and the ministry of the Word. It takes more than songs, Bible study and prayer to make contact with God. Bible study and prayer can become the most dangerous form of hypocrisy. Gaining more knowledge of God and being informed of the teachings of God can develop in us an insidious pride which not only breaks fellowship with Him but blocks the door to God for others. A genuine relationship with God makes no room for self-acquired knowledge of the Holy One. After Moses spent some time with God it was not the added knowledge about God which caused his face to shine. Alone with God in the mornings causes us to live in harmony with God and His people during the day. A distorted opinion of God is the result of lack of communion with the True One. Spending time alone in prayer and Bible study will not necessarily make us a man or woman of God, but spending time in the presence of God will result in obedience to His commandments and a change into His image. After our Lord had taught His followers they were still considered ordinary and unschooled men. However spending time with Him and receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit gave them so much boldness that the world began to tremble (Acts 4:13). They were given this power because they obeyed Him. There is no blessedness in hearing or knowing God’s Word apart from keeping it. In 1 Kings we read of a man who spent time with God and acted accordingly. Elijah was a man just like you and me in many ways. With temptations and weaknesses like ours, he, by having fellowship with God and obeying Him, became a man who could call down fire from heaven. He had learned that the true God is the God who answers by fire. Andrew Murray wrote about him, “The true man of God is he who knows how to call down the fire because he has power with the God of heaven. Whether the fire be that of judgement or the Holy Spirit, the work of the man of God is to bring fire down to earth. What the world needs is the man of God who knows God’s power and has power with God.” Christians are flying to serve people by identifying with them and showing them kindness and mercy. But how are people’s hearts to be changed unless we know God and have fellowship with Him? Time alone with God and obeying Him will make us men and women of God who will bring a separation between the Baal worshipers and God’s remnant. Elijah’s call to God’s people was, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal is god, follow him.” The response to this was such as we could expect today. “The people remained silent.” They did not want to choose. But we must choose for we are either a man of the world or a man of God. It is our desire to make this time with God in the morning the most precious time, a time which will someday give us the best of memories. When we withdraw completely from contact with temporal things, we are free to yield ourselves to the power of the unseen world. Jesus needed quiet time to realize the power of the kingdom of darkness with which He had come to contend and to conquer. He needed to be alone and so do we. How are you getting along with your time alone with God? Would you want to share with us your intimate time with the Lord? This could be a great help to us. We would love to hear from you. Let us encourage one another -- and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”