Sing Praise!

Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good;
sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant.
(Psalm 135:3)

I absolutely love waking up with a song of praise in my heart. It sets the tone of the whole day for me. Some days, it is a song I listened to the night before and other days, it is a song that was just there when I woke up. Today, my alarm clock went off at 5:30am. I have been trying to get up and out of bed to go for a quiet walk in the morning before the craziness of getting ready for work. As I reset my alarm for 6am. I said "God, I really want to get out of bed and go for a walk with you this morning. If you could some how help me get up when my alarm goes off again, that would be great." Well, I laid there for about 5 minutes before I realized that I was not going back to sleep. Ask and you shall receive - not exactly when I had in mind, but it still works. As I got out of bed, I recognized the song in my heart for today. This morning I woke up with a song in my heart that I had been listening to in the beginning of the week; "Waking Up" by Charlie Hall.

"And I wake up, 'cause Your mercy is new and it causes me to sing to You. Yeah I rise up, 'cause You're mercy is new and it causes me to sing to You."

As I walked, in the dark neighborhood, apparently it was too early for the street lights to be on, I found myself singing that song and smiling. Now, I could only remember the chorus, so I just kept repeating that as I looked up at the stars. What a blessing it was to wake up and go for a walk well before normal people are out of bed.

Psalm 135 speaks of the greatness of God and the greatness of his power and authority. The psalmist speaks of the great things that God has done for the Israelites. It shows them that any idol is powerless against God.

I don't know about you, but I like to sleep as long as I possibly can. I set the alarm for 5am every day and every day, I stay in bed until 6:45am - the absolute latest I can possibly get up. Now, I have consciously chosen to sleep, over spending some unhurried time with God in the morning. I desire to get up and do so, however, I desire to sleep in more. According to the definition of what an idol is - anything that occupies your thoughts or is more important to you than God - I think it would be a safe bet to say that for me, sleep was an idol. I have tried again and again to get up and go for a walk on my own strength, but after setting and re-setting my alarm numerous times, it simply hasn't happened. This morning when I asked God to help me, well I couldn't even sleep another minute. I would have missed a big blessing and a wonderful start to my day if I had merely stayed in bed and tried again to get up on my own strength. Thank you God for answering my plea!

When I got back from my walk, I looked up the rest of the words for "Waking Up" by Charlie Hall. I decided that they were my prayer for today.

Praise the Lord, my soul and all of my being
Be my all today and all that I'm seeing
Keep me close to You, me heart close to You speaking
Father keep me close, yeah

And I say today that You are true and faithful
I want Your heart today and a heart that is grateful
And in my weakness, Lord, I know that You will sustain me
Oh, restrain me God, please

With all of my being
I rise up to sing
Sing, sing
I rise up to sing

"And I wake up, 'cause Your mercy is new and it causes me to sing to You. Yeah I rise up, 'cause You're mercy is new and it causes me to sing to You."