Morning by Morning

November 17, 2015

Morning by Morning

Morning by morning he wakens me

    and opens my understanding to his will.

Isaiah 50:4b

I am “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love.” How so? Because in my life, the hardest discipline for me to master is the wisdom God spoke to the psalmist, “Be still, and know that I am God!” (Psalm 46:10a). For me, ‘be still” in this phrase is the embodiment of the spiritual disciplines of solitude, stillness and silence. As much as I long to live the Christ-life, where Jesus becomes visible in my mortal flesh, the biggest obstacle I am striving to overcome is to be still and allow the Lord to waken me, morning by morning, and open my understanding to His will.

I know that my life will be transformed by the renewing of my mind. (Romans 12:2) I know that God is working in me, giving me the desire and the power to do what pleases him. (Philippians 2:13) Even so, instead of cooperating with God morning by morning as He wakens me and opens my understanding to his will, I live out the reality of Saint Paul’s lament: “I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway” (Romans 7:18-19).

As I ponder my shortcomings, I respond in two ways. First, I’m not going to just sit here and eat worms. Instead I rejoice with Paul powerful double affirmation: “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24-25). (Paul elaborates on the answer in Romans 8:1-2, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.”

Secondly, as much as I rejoice that there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus, and that I am free from the power of sin, I want more. I want to rise above the quagmire of wanting to do right, but not doing it, and wanting to avoid wrong, but doing it anyway. As long as I am too busy, too distracted, too whatever to pray, I will remain immersed in the quagmire. However, as soon as I turn my heart to God and anticipate His awakening me, morning by morning, I will find Him opening my understanding to His will. The witness of the Spirit to my soul is that I have found the path for me; it is known as contemplative prayer. The more I own my life and set aside time for stillness, solitude and silence, the more I’ll see the remnants of the quagmire fall away.   

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.