Each morning, I send out a first tweet that is a devotional thought God has given me for the day. Sometimes Scripture, sometimes a quote, and sometimes just a thought that came to me in prayer.
“Quiet time with God is like manna from Heaven. It comes each day, but it disappears with the dawn.” (unknown)
I often get responses from friends to my “first thoughts” like, “My first thought was, Cereal, or bagel?, or Did somebody turn the coffee on? I have similar thoughts…..but have tried over the last chapter of life to spend waking moments with a higher focus.
Many years ago, a mentor of mine gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever received.
“Make your first conversation each morning, a conversation with God.”
So my goal has become this: The first thing I hear each morning is a Word from Him through Scripture or a devotional. And the first thing out of my mouth is a prayer to Him. Am I tempted to check email, or Twitter first thing? Oh yes. And I’m amazed at how many times, when I do read something else first, my day loses focus and my mood is less than it could be. But on the days when I spend those first moments and first conversation with God, things stay on a much more even keel.
Interested, but too busy to deal with books first thing in the morning? As much as I travel, I’ve found a couple of great tools for making this discipline portable. I might suggest the daily read from the One Year Bible or from YouVersion, particularly if you want to use your phone or blackberry. The YouVersion app for the iPhone and Blackberry are amazing, and may even be history making.
So what’s your first thought? Where does your first conversation go each day?
I hope that a First Thought, maybe better titled a First Tweet will help you in some small way.
follow me on Twitter and get your first thought on most days (I’m not perfect….ask my family)
This post originally appeared in 2009, and has been reposted as a result of the growing popularity of the daily #1stThought. Thanks for your comments. Keep them coming!
Now that summer is in full swing, many of us are finding time to prop up our feet and rest. I’ve banned socks for the foreseeable future.
Trouble is, if you’re like me, you’ve spent some vacations missing the whole point….and you work your tail off to have fun.
Ever stress out trying to make record time on the drive to vacation? Ever get anxious wondering if you can maximize your fun time with scheduled activities? Ever get home from your time away, feeling like you need a vacation to recover from your vacation?
I was guilty of it all. Now, I’m in recovery…
Instead of over-programmed time away, we now only have 2 rules for vacation:
- Eat til you’re tired.
- Sleep til you’re hungry.
Earlier in life, I would have rushed through vacation, trying to do more things during my time off work. Then I realized:
God took a vacation. And He only did one thing on that first Sabbath day.
He rested.
Now I do too, and it’s made all the difference.
God worked, then He rested. Do you?
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”
They call that song an old favorite for a reason.
Look upon Him, and your eyes will be lifted up. Lifted up past the hurt of this world. Lifted up past the failures of your life. Lifted to a higher vision for what you can become.
I realized this again last Sunday as our worship team offered a simple, acoustic arrangement of the Miley Cyrus song “When I Look At You” (yes Miley’s music made it into our church). Lisa Reid, a singer on our worship team knocked it out of the park. She was kind enough to send me a recording this morning.
We don’t have the professional, studio quality music of a lot of larger churches, but this was so good I had to share it. Click the link below. Take a listen. Look at Him, and find a bigger vision of life and who you can become.
When I Look At You – Cypress Creek Worship Team
As I thought about Independence Day this year, I read about one of the first celebrations, on July 4th 1777.
The patriots were celebrating one year of a new country, new independence, and a new endeavor.
“Freedom must be declared before it is realized.”
The rest of the world? Well the rest of the world didn’t even regard us as a country. Had you asked a Londoner what he thought of the new country, he might have laughed. Freedom had been declared, but it would be a long time before that freedom was won. Six more years of battle, uncertainty, and pain were ahead before the British surrendered in the war.
But that didn’t keep our founders from declaring their freedom, living as if they were free, and believing that it would one day come to pass. Despite the overwhelming circumstances surrounding them, the cost before them, and the uncertainty ahead of them, our founders declared freedom, believed in their freedom, and even celebrated it….long before it was a reality.
That was a new insight for me, and may be the best Independence Day spiritual lesson I’ve heard.
Freedom must be declared before it is realized. It must be lived into, believed in, and trusted before it’s ever a concrete reality. That’s a core lesson in the Bible and on the road of faith.
Follow our founders, and the lessons of the Word. Declare a freedom in your life today. Believe it no matter the circumstances surrounding you. For freedom declared is the pathway to freedom realized.
As I was running this morning, I watched a bird dig in the ground, grab a worm, and take off. I swear, I think he smiled. The early bird got the worm. It reminded me of my devotional time from earlier in the day:
I will awaken the dawn with my song (Ps 108:2)
The longer I live, the more I believe that
The first thoughts of your day determine the course of your day.
If you spend your first thoughts worrying about your troubles, your day will be a day dominated by a troubled mind. If you fix your first thoughts on criticism of someone who has done you wrong, your day will be dominated by a critical mind. If you spend your first moments worrying about what you don’t have, or what might be lost today, your day will be consumed by a mindset of scarcity.
But if your first thoughts are spent counting your blessings, and blessing God, your mind (and your day) will be dominated by blessing.
The early bird really does get the worm. The early thoughts of our day really do set the course for the day.
What kind of early bird are you?
