The First Duty
God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you, My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no water. — Psalms 63:1
Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. — Mark 14:38
Author
E. M. Bounds
Summary: Seeking God early in the morning expresses an ardent desire for communion that overcomes sleep and personal comfort. If we do not give Him first place in the freshness of our thoughts and efforts, He will be relegated to the background for the rest of the day. It is not simply rising early, but hunger for God, that strengthens faith and opens the heart to a fuller revelation. David and Christ demonstrate this longing to pray before dawn. We must stop merely admiring the example of the saints and begin to imitate their diligence, especially in preaching, offering God our best strength so that we may receive joy, power, and fortitude throughout the day’s labors.
The men who have done a good work for God in the world are those who have been on their knees early. He who wastes the best of the morning—its opportunity and freshness—on pursuits other than seeking God will make little progress in drawing near to Him during the rest of the day. If God does not occupy first place in our efforts and thoughts in the morning, He will occupy last place throughout the remainder of the day.
Behind this early rising to pray lies the ardent desire that impels us to commune with God. The neglect shown in the morning is a sign of an indifferent heart. The heart that delays seeking God in the morning has lost its delight in Him. David hungered and thirsted for God, and for this reason he sought Him early, before dawn. Bed and sleep did not bind his soul in its eagerness to seek God. Christ longed for communion with the Father, and so, before daybreak, He would go to the mountain to pray. When the disciples awoke, ashamed of their negligence, they knew where to find Him. If we go through the names of those who have stirred the world in support of godly causes, we find that they sought God very early in the morning.
A desire for God that cannot break the chains of sleep is a weak thing that will accomplish little of real worth for God.
It is not merely rising early that puts men at the forefront and makes them commanders-in-chief of the hosts of God, but the ardent desire that stirs and breaks the chains of self-indulgence. Leaping early from bed gives the desire an outlet, growth, and strength; otherwise, it dies out. Desire awakens them, and this yearning for God, this eagerness to hasten at His call, causes faith to take firm hold of God and enables the heart to receive the sweetest and fullest revelation.
The strength of this faith and the fullness of this revelation produce eminent saints, whose halo of holiness reaches us so that we may share in their victories. But we merely content ourselves with enjoying them rather than reproducing them. We build their tombs and write their epitaphs, but take great care not to follow their example.
We need a generation of preachers who seek God in the morning, who give God the freshness and dew of their effort so that, as their reward, they may receive the abundance of His power, which will give them joy and strength amid the heat and labor of the day. Our laziness in the things of God is the sin from which we suffer. The children of this world are wiser than we are. They attend to their business from dawn until dusk. We do not seek God with ardor and diligence.
No man and no soul can take firm hold of God unless they pursue Him steadfastly from the earliest hours of the day.
Source: E. M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer