O is for Opening - 13 Prayers

This is my latest post in my 2019 series Prayer A to Z. You can find the other posts here.

O is for Opening —

If you aren’t Opening your day with prayer, you’re missing out!

Be honest.

What’s the first thing you do in the morning? Do you…Check email? Social media? Stock market reports? Weather? Sports? As you are Opening your eyes, I challenge you to also start Opening your day in prayer. For the next 21 days (the time period many researchers say it takes to create a habit), maybe offer just a short “Good morning, God, let’s face today together.” prayer before you even get out of bed.

21-Day Opening Challenge:

For the next 21 days, start your morning with an Opening prayer. Before any extended quiet time. Before coffee. Before your feet hit the floor.

But don’t stop there.

Before you Open your phone or the paper, get into the habit of Opening the Word. Ps. 119:147 says, “I rise before dawn and cry out for help; I put my hope in Your Word.” By putting our HOPE in HIS WORD, the world has no opportunity to disappoint us. (My world for 2019 is HOPE, and I get so excited when it pops up in the context of this study.)

LOOK for the pay-off from Opening your day with God.

By starting the day with Him, we can actually fill our hearts and minds with joy – even on, or especially on, those stress-filled days we all have. See Ps. 90:14 “Satisfy us in the morning with Your faithful love so that we may shout with joy and be glad all our days.”

Let God be your morning GPS.

Psalms 143:8 tells us God will provide directions from a morning encounter: “Let me experience your faithful love in the morning, for I trust in You. Reveal to me the way I should go because I appeal to You.”

See Morning Prayer Requests Answered.

I was watching for a package recently and was reminded of waiting for answers to prayer. Ps. 5:3 tells us to pray in the morning with expectation, “In the morning, LORD, You hear my voice; in the morning I plead my case to You and watch expectantly.” If you are only ending your day with your list of prayer requests, you may not be watching as expectantly throughout the next day as you wait for an answer. But if you’ve only just finished asking for something, aren’t you more likely to recognize it when it happens?

Abba Father, help us to come to You before anything else. Show us results from this – miraculous benefits that would only be from You, that will further Your Kingdom and bring You glory.