Revive My Heart Every Morning

Revive My Heart Every Morning

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided:
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

“Morning by morning new mercies I see.” Really? You must be kidding! Maybe some days that’s true, but most of the time, the morning seems anything but merciful. After the effort of getting everyone ready and out the door, I’m just happy if all the people are alive and clothed! 

In all the chaos it can be hard to slow down and look for the mercies that God has waiting for us each day. Regardless of what the morning looks like at your house, the enemy often wants to derail our days from the very beginning. A missed alarm, a big spill, a missing shoe, a heated argument—he doesn’t care what it takes. 

While I wish I could offer the perfect formula to a calm, serene morning in which everyone gets along beautifully, Scripture offers us no such thing. However, we can do a few things to resist the enemy and help our hearts start the day victoriously. 

Although we must not equate these things to a quick and easy solution to all of our morning’s problems, we also shouldn’t shortchange the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to calm our anxious hearts. None of these things are revolutionary, and many people have written about them before me. However, maybe these simple, well-worn truths will be the reminder your heart needs in order to be revived morning by morning. 

1. Rehearse the Gospel

You need to hear the gospel today. And you will need to hear it tomorrow. And the day after that. And every day until you see Jesus face to face. I know this because, like me, you’re a spiritual amnesiac. Though we’ve heard the truths of Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and ascension innumerable times before, we still forget that we can’t be good enough on our own. 

We start believing, as they did in Galatia, that having become Christians by the Spirit, somehow we can be perfected by the flesh (Gal. 3:3). So, each morning we start out the day with a list of ways we plan to be better today than yesterday. But by the time the breakfast dishes are done, we’ve already failed. Again. 

That’s why we need the gospel every day—to remind ourselves that we are sinners saved by grace, sanctified by grace, and we will be glorified by grace. Yes, God has given us good works in which to walk (Eph. 2:10), but we can do them only by living in light of our identity as children of God (see Eph. 1). 

Start the day by rehearsing the gospel. Read a passage such as Ephesians 2:1–10 or Romans 6 or John 3 or Titus 3:3–7. Or work your way through The Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent or meditate on a gospel-saturated hymn such as “Before the Throne of God Above,” “In Christ Alone,” or “Yet Not I but Through Christ in Me.” Whatever you do, take time to turn your eyes to the cross and rehearse the gospel. 

2. Wash in the Water of the Word 

When my alarm goes off in the morning, the excuse train starts chugging. Normally I’m thinking of reasons I don’t need to get up to exercise. And some days I’m quite good at it. Maybe you do the same thing when it comes to spending time in Scripture. As long as the planets are perfectly aligned and your morning goes exactly to plan, you can sit down with the Word. Otherwise, the universal balance is thrown off, and you decide to try again another day.

While I don’t want to encourage legalism in spending time in the Word (God won’t be mad at you for missing a day. He’s not a teacher with a ledger marking down your grade every time you skip. See? This is why we need the gospel so much!), just because God’s favor toward you does not depend on your faithfulness to the Word, that does not mean that it doesn’t matter if you spend time in the Word or not. 

As each day begins, you are about to head into battle. Whether in the workforce, at home, at school, the gym, the grocery store, or the mall, you are going to spend the rest of your day in the world. In order to prepare your heart for the warfare to come, take time in the beginning to let the Word wash over you.

It may be short—that’s okay. Take a few minutes to read through a Psalm or a chapter of Proverbs. Eventually you can make it through a book taking just a small bite at a time. Then tackle another book, or, better yet, circle back around and start the same one over again. If but for a few minutes, be renewed in the Spirit of your mind by filling it with the Word. 

3. Commit Your Day to God 

I know it comes as no surprise that prayer and Bible reading would show up on this brief list of ways to revive your heart each morning. That’s because it’s so fundamental. And maybe starting your day on your knees is something that you know you ought to do, yet still struggle to do—like flossing, exercising, or buying Christmas presents in July. Starting your day by adoring, praising, confessing to, and requesting of God can be a literal day-shaper. But don’t just take my word for it. Here are a few blessings Scripture itself mentions regarding prayer: 

• Through prayer we receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need (Heb. 4:16).
• Through prayer we find peace that surpasses our understanding (Phil. 4:6–7).
• Through prayer we can bring our complaints to a God who hears (Psalm 55:17).
• Through prayer we remember that God is God and we are not (Psalm 59: 16).
• Through prayer we align our hearts with God’s will (Luke 18:1–8).

To be sure, these benefits do not exclusively come by starting the day in prayer. Though we have many scriptural examples of people who prayed in the morning, we don’t have a verse mandating the practice. However, by starting the day with adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication, you start the day ready for battle (see Eph. 6:10–18). 

4. Leave Your Phone Where It Is 

While I know that for each of the three actions above you could easily exclaim, “Great! There’s an app for that!” And those Bible-reading or prayer apps are doubtless good and helpful tools. But I firmly believe that if you want to begin your day with a revived heart ready to go to battle against the enemy, you shouldn’t pick up one of the enemy’s most potent weapons against our spiritual lives. At least not before your heart is ready. 

Despite the potential for using it to help your spiritual disciplines, I think your phone’s potential for harm is far greater. It’s so easy to get distracted and start looking at messages, notifications, or emails. So, for just the first half-hour to hour of the day, go old school. Study from a printed Bible. Read a “real” book. Write in a prayer journal with paper pages. It might feel weird, old-fashioned, inefficient, and boring. But that’s okay. Do it anyway. Unplug for a little while. It will be worth it, I promise!

Mornings can be hard, hectic, and stressful. But start the day by putting on the armor of God, ready to stand firm against the devil’s attacks. Rehearse the gospel, preaching it to yourself day in and day out. Renew your mind by washing in the water of the Word of God. Commit your day and your family’s day to God. And, resist the urge to pick up your phone (or tablet!).