Early Will I Seek Thee

I have struggled for years with getting to bed on time, that is at least by 10 pm.  May be different for others.  As a physician I know the benefits of getting a good night’s rest.  It is during those hours of inactivity that the body has time to heal, rejuvenate and restore.

However, there is also a very important reason to get to bed early, so that we can rise early.  It is for our spiritual health.  Just as the physical body heals, rejuvenates and restores, so it is with our spiritual body when we rise early to meet with God in prayer. 

The Psalmist, David wrote “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee…”  Psalms 63:1  and “My voice shalt thou hear early in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up”.  Psalms 5:3

I will share a chapter from the book, E.M. Bounds on Prayer, section on Power through Prayer, chapter 7.  Here is eloquently shared the importance and reward of seeking God first and early.  As Robert Murray McCheyne stated, “I feel that it is far better to begin with God – to seek His face first – to get my soul near Him before it is near another”.

E.M. Bounds, Power through Prayer, Chapter 7:

“The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees.  He who fritters away the early morning – its opportunity and freshness – in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking Him the rest of the day.  If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, He (God) will be last during the remainder of the day. 

Behind this early rising and early praying is the intense desire that urges us into this pursuit after God.  Morning listlessness indicates a listless heart.   The heart that is lax in seeking God in morning has lost its relish for God.  David’s heart was ardent after God.  He hungered and thirsted after God.  He sought God early, before daylight.  The bed and sleep could not chain his soul in the eagerness after God.  Christ longed for communion with God; and so, rising a great while before day, He would go out to the mountain to pray.  The disciples, when fully awake and ashamed of their indulgence, knew where to find Him.  We could list men who have mightily impressed the world for God, and we would find that they were early in seeking after God. 

A desire for God that cannot break the chains of sleep is a weak thing and will do little good for God.  The desire for God that stays far behind the Devil and the world at the beginning of the day will never catch up. 

It is not simply getting up that has brought men to the front and has made them leaders in God’s hosts.  It is the overwhelming desire that stirs and breaks all self-indulgent chains that does so.  But getting up gives vent, increase, and strength to the desire.  If they had lain in bed and indulged themselves, the desire would have quenched.  The desire aroused them and inspired them to reach out for God. 

This heeding and acting on the call gave their faith its grasp on God, and their hearts the sweetest and fullest revelation of Him.  This strength of faith and fullness of revelation made them saints by eminence.  The halo of their sainthood has come down to us, and we have entered into the enjoyment of their conquests.  But we take our fill in enjoyment of them, and not in imitating them.  We build their tombs and write their epitaphs, but are careful not to follow their examples. 

We need a generation of preachers who seek God and seek Him early.  We need men who give the freshness and dew of effort to God, and in return secure the freshness and fullness of His power, that He may be as the dew to them – full of gladness and strength through all the heal and labor of the day.  Our laziness after God is our crying sin.  The children of this world are far wiser than we.  They are at it early and late.  We do not seek God with ardor and diligence.  No man receives God who does not follow hard after Him.  And no soul follows hard after God who is not after Him in early morn.” 

I will close with an admonition from a renowned preacher, Charles Spurgeon on prayer:

“One night alone in prayer might make us new men (or women), change from poverty of soul to spiritual wealth, from trembling to triumphing.  We have an example of it in the life of Jacob.  He was once the crafty shuffler, always bargaining and calculating, unlovely in almost every respect.  Yet, one night in prayer turned the supplanter into a prevailing prince, and robed him with celestial grandeur.  From that night, he lived on the sacred page as one of the nobility of heaven.  Could we not, at least now and then, in these weary earthbound years, hedge about a single night for such enriching traffic with the skies? 

What, have we no sacred ambition?  Are we deaf to the yearnings of divine love?  Yet, my fellow believers, men will cheerfully quit their warm couches for wealth and for science.  Can we not do it now and again for the love of God and the good of souls?  Where is our zeal, our gratitude, or sincerity?  I am ashamed while I thus upbraid both myself and you.  May we often tarry at Jabbok (the river near which Jacob wrestled through the night), and cry with Jacob, as he grasped the angel –
With thee all night I mean to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day.

Surely brethren, if we have given whole days to folly, we can afford a space for heavenly wisdom.

There was a time when we gave whole nights to chambering and wantonness, to dancing and the world’s revelry; we did not tire then; we were chiding the sun that he rose so soon, and wishing the hours would lag awhile that we might delight in wilder merriment and perhaps deeper sin.  Oh, why then do we weary in heavenly employments?  Why do we grow weary when asked to watch with our Lord?  Up, sluggish heart, Jesus calls you!  Rise and go forth to meet the heavenly Friend in the place where He manifests Himself.”

After reading the chapter and this quote from Spurgeon, I felt as they did, ashamed because God is so faithful to me and He sustains each breath that I breathe, every second of every day.  He does this for you and for me, although so unworthy, because of unconditional love. 

I hope that you are inspired with me to, “purpose in our hearts” to meet with Him early each day to be renewed, strengthened and guided to do His will.