TEXT: ‘In the morning You hear my voice, O Lord; in the morning I prepare [a prayer, a sacrifice] for You and watch and wait [for You to speak to my heart].’ Psalm 5:3 AMPC THOUGHT: I have just started my new Bible which has a larger print to make it easier on my eyesight. Although I have had it for a few months I wanted to finish reading the New Testament in my old Bible before opening the New! It has that lovely smell of leather. So I started reading Psalms and my attention was drawn to our text which speaks about talking to the Lord in the morning. Why is this important and well-worth doing? Why spend time reading the Bible and praying? It was something Jesus practised – ‘Very early the next morning, long before daylight, Jesus got up and left the house. He went out of town to a lonely place, where he prayed’ – Mark 1:35 GNT However busy the previous day and evening had been, Jesus still got up early the next day to spend time with His heavenly Father before facing the hectic demands of a new day. He said to His apostles, ‘Follow Me’ – Matthew 4:19; to the hesitant disciple, ‘Follow Me’...
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TEXT: ‘Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him.” So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer”’ – Ezra 8:21-23. THOUGHT: I enjoy having breakfast, starting the day with food. Break-fast is not really anything to do with fasting, more to do with awaking from sleep. Fasting is not a form of dieting but the denial of drinks and foods and other things, for a set period of time, in order to achieve a higher, more important goal. This can be for just one meal, a day or even weeks. Reading the Book of Ezra recently, the Holy Spirit drew my attention to some fasting principles revealed in our text. Ezra ordered a fast but why and for what purpose? Fasting is a form of submission – ‘we might humble...
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