"Morning ...

Ephesians 1:11
Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.

Our belief in God's wisdom supposes and necessitates that He has a settled purpose and plan in the work of salvation. What would creation have been without His design? Is there a fish in the sea, or a fowl in the air, which was left to chance for its formation? Nay, in every bone, joint, and muscle, sinew, gland, and blood-vessel, you mark the presence of a God working everything according to the design of infinite wisdom. And shall God be present in creation, ruling over all, and not in grace? Shall the new creation have the fickle genius of free will to preside over it when divine counsel rules the old creation? Look at Providence! Who knoweth not that not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your Father? Even the hairs of your head are all numbered. God weighs the mountains of our grief in scales, and the hills of our tribulation in balances. And shall there be a God in providence and not in grace? Shall the shell be ordained by wisdom and the kernel be left to blind chance. No; He knows the end from the beginning. He sees in its appointed place, not merely the corner-stone which He has laid in fair colours, in the blood of His dear Son, but He beholds in their ordained position each of the chosen stones taken out of the quarry of nature, and polished by His grace; He sees the whole from corner to cornice, from base to roof, from foundation to pinnacle. He hath in His mind a clear knowledge of every stone which shall be laid in its prepared space, and how vast the edifice shall be, and when the top-stone shall be brought forth with shoutings of "Grace! Grace! unto it." At the last it shall be clearly seen that in every chosen vessel of mercy, Jehovah did as He willed with His own; and that in every part of the work of grace He accomplished His purpose, and glorified His own name." Charles Spurgeon

Yes, Lord, I know You know how my day is going to go. I know that at the end I will understand that it was necessary You accomplished it. I know that I should trust You and just get up and do my devotional when You tell me to. I know that the morning is the best way to start my day. Not because of "common sense", but because You deemed it that way. I know that You can make lots of things happen that don't normally happen to make it possible for me to have energy and rest. I also know that even if those things don't happen that You can sustain me just enough to keep me leaning on You rather than myself - which is always the best dynamic. Well, one thing is dang sure - You made an absolutely GORGEOUS sunrise for me to wake me up and make me consider staying awake. How did You come up with just that formula? The bright orange sun, hazy peach sky, misty dew settling in the field beyond our backyard tree line... It is beautiful. But I still begrudge You this time! I'm mad and with a smirk on my face, I say "You got me!" like You've tricked me into this! Touche.

Anyway, yes, I'm mad at You. But I'm also THANKFUL that You did it. I've been asking You to and then not following up on it. The kids woke up early just like this yesterday and not an iota of my mind recognized it would be a good time to spend time with You after I nestled them back in bed. Other days Michael leaves and I hunker back under the covers and try to eke out as many more minutes as kid-less-ness allows. But I've known since the beginning of the summer that You've wanted me to do this. And now it's almost August. I am really grateful that You don't keep a tab of my offenses, Lord, because just the daily denial of Your voice over this summer would have been thousands of offenses more than enough to send me to Hell. How do You put up with this kind of stuff from Your children???

God, I submit to You this time, my extra sleep, my day. I ask You to take it and sanctify it. Fill me up with Your Spirit right now to begin the work of sanctification in my heart, mind, and mouth. I have lots of stuff to do today and no energy. I have company and forgot to put the roast in. Wow. There's one blessing already! I'm choosing to serve You today, but know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I can't. It's not possible. So I'm asking You to use my body to serve You. I wish that I could just decide each morning to become a Holy Spirit puppet and You could do whatever You wanted and I wouldn't have to make such hard choices and fail so much. But I know that's not part of Your plan for Your creation. You want me to learn to make good decisions - namely, to believe Your Word and Your Spirit over anything else that comes in opposition to it. You want me to grow, to influence, to be a part of Your world and an integral part of the process that takes us to the Second Coming and eternity thereafter. I can't do that without You, but You won't do it through me without me. There is something You find beautiful about creation prostrate before You in willful and loving submission. I think it's cool, too.

Well, I'm up, and already I feel better. Thank You for infusing me with what I need for this morning. Please keep doing it! And while You're at it, can You do a miracle to make me not mad at You anymore and not grouchy with my kids?!?! PLEASE?!?