How have I engaged with God this week? At Harvest, we hope you'll ask this question often! This week, we'll give you a simple new way to answer that question. It'll sound "old-school" to some of you but sometimes old practices are lasting and good!
Here it is: kneeling prayer in the morning. Yup. That simple. Hit the floor first thing and take a moment to pray first.
There’s something powerful in aligning your physical body toward your heart’s intent of submission to Jesus and worship of God. Practically, kneeling prayer offers a quick way to orient yourself toward the Lord. Give it a try this week!
By beginning the morning with prayer, we can begin with the good news (gospel) to set up our heart, mind, and source of identity for the day. The reality is, many of us wake up with a negative word rather than good news. Do any of these waking thoughts sound familiar:
- I should have gone to bed earlier.
- Ugh, today is going to be tough.
- Why are the kids up so early in the morning?
- I don’t want to work out this morning.
What if instead of allowing whatever unintentional thoughts dictate the start of our day, we chose to intentionally set our minds on the love of God in Jesus for us? What if we started by speaking the good news over our day? If you chose a kneeling posture for morning prayer, this may be a short (even seconds-long) exercise. Your prayer might sound something like:
- "God, thank you for another day not earned. You are generous to me! Please use everything today-- good and bad-- for my good and your glory."
So often our minds are drawn toward a bad-news word. Kneeling prayer allows you to check yourself and recognize this tendency. Then you’re free to confess it and invite God into it. If you wake up with a sense of dread about a project, meeting, or something about your day, turn it over to God.
- “Help me trust you to lead me through this today!”
When you are feeling condemned about something you did wrong, confess it and claim the true good news you have in Jesus.
- “God, I blew it. Thank you Jesus that I’m not condemned but I’m forgiven because of you. Help me to do anything I should to learn from this and walk by the power of your Spirit today.”
Give this a try this week!
Written By: Micah Hutchison
