03. In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly. Psalm 5:3

Welcome back, how are you getting on with getting these bible verses forged into your memory? I have to be honest I think I have lost my edge when it comes to impressive memory recall but let’s keep going.

In my household, the chances of getting up before my children and finding a quiet place to reflect and read my bible is rare, not impossible but rare. But, there have been seasons in my life where I have set an alarm and found time alone in the morning to pray and seek God with a bit more enthusiasm and focus, and it has transformed my life.

With the bible verse for memory this week I want to suggest we go for it literally, and pull out 3 things:

• the morning
• lay my requests
• wait expectantly.

Firstly, lets look at this thing of ‘in the morning.’ As I said, normally this just doesn’t happen, the alarm gets hit or ignored. However when it has happened and I get up early to pray, I have found that my life as a Christian has grown. I have heard from God in these morning prayer times, found a new passion for the bible and even prayed for other people! Does it need to be in the morning? I can honestly say it does work so you can make up your own mind, but I am taking this one literally.

Secondly, ‘lay my requests.’ I like this. So often we might have read that God knows your thoughts before you have even prayed so what’s the point in praying? Well, even though he knows your every thought the invite is still to come to him and speak to him, talk and tell him what’s on your heart. I like that. So often my son comes to me and I know exactly what he is thinking just by looking at him. However I don’t stop him, hearing him pour it all out and look to me is part of this father and son deal.

Lastly, we are told to wait expectantly, not to forget that we laid all this stuff in front of God or busy ourselves trying to fix the stuff we have just asked for help on. Waiting isn’t easy, waiting expectantly is even harder as it requires faith and hope that stuff will change or be answered.

Image Credit: Ben White