Morning is coming!

I stayed home all day yesterday! My body wasn't cooperating with me and I needed a day to get myself together. It’s been a rather hard trust week with the enemy’s voice talking louder than the Lord’s. Anybody had one of those weeks?  I struggled with hearing from Him and hoped that if I could just rest for the day that I would hear something. I got in the bed early but it always seems like when I do that something or someone wakes me up! Last night was no exception when a big storm came through. From that point on, I kept clock watching. When I finally got to sleep, the alarm was not on my side. Isn’t it amazing how quickly the morning comes when you don’t want it to?  But when you are going through a stormy time in your life, whether it’s physically, financially or spiritually, the night feels like it goes on forever, doesn’t it?  As I have gone through 2016, God has taken me on a journey. He’s allowed some things to happen that I never imagined for myself both good and not so good. At times, the journey has been extremely lonely and at others I’ve felt my “great cloud of witnesses” as Hebrews 12:1 refers to, cheering me on. Even as I’ve been moving forward, the devil has been on the attack and I’ll tell you, the night has seemed mighty long this year. But God keeps drawing me to Psalm 30:5b “…weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning!” Is anybody else waiting on the morning?

Sometimes people assume that because you are a Christian and serving God that your life should be easy. For some reason, they think that you don’t ever go through anything. But God never promised that a life of serving Him would be easy. People will talk about you. Your family may condemn you and the enemy will definitely attack you.  As a matter of fact, Jesus says in John 15:20 that “A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” Times will not always be easy. But today I want to remind you, that even if you are in the midst of a storm, to praise God right now for the morning. Psalm 30:5 is not a conditional statement. He didn’t say weeping may endure for a night and joy might come in the morning. NO! He says joy COMES in the morning! It’s coming, friends! You just have to hold on. My uncle used to tell me that ‘the night is always darkest before the dawn.’ So if it seems like everything is coming against you and you can’t even imagine a way out, remind yourself that your morning is on the way!

 2 Corinthians 4: 16-18 in The Message Bible ministered to my spirit this morning and I hope it does something for you. It says, “So we're not giving up. How could we? Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever.”  Isn’t that good news?!

There are good times coming, my friends! Keep pressing forward towards the joy! Remember David’s reminder in Psalm 16:11 says in the presence of God there is fullness of joy. When the enemy brings his best shot, declare Hebrews 10: 39, “But we’re not quitters who lose out. Oh, no! We’ll stay with it and survive, trusting all the way.” (MSG) We will win, family!

I don’t know about you but even though I can’t quite see it, I’m excited about my morning! Joy comes in the morning! New mercies come in the morning! God awakens my ears to listen and be taught morning by morning! Psalm 5:3 says “In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation!” (NIV) So, I encourage you today to look towards your morning with excitement and expectation.  Make this your prayer today, "God, I ask that you restore everything in the morning that was lost at midnight! In the name of Jesus!"  Come on, saints, your morning is coming!

 

AMEN