Daily devotional, March 16, 2024 The morning lark

"Do not love sleep or you will grow poor; stay awake and you will have food to spare."
 Proverbs 20:13

They say that there are two kinds of people, the morning lark and the night owl. Night owls are those who say that they are more productive in the evening. They are more active at night and are comfortable sleeping late. The morning lark on the other hand is like the proverbial early bird. They are up and about really early in the morning, and they tackle the day head on.

The bible contains stories of characters who start the day early to get on with their God-honoring work and enrich their relationship with the Lord. For instance, Moses was recorded to have been rising up early to take on the mission God gave Him. Several times it was written that it was the Lord Himself that commanded him to wake up early. And this was from the time He was still trying to free them from the Egyptians, up until they journeyed towards the Promised land.

"So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone." 
Exodus 34:4

The Israelites also had to wake up early to gather God’s provision for them in the wilderness:

"Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted." 
Exodus 16:21

Moses’ assistant, Joshua also was an early riser. Upon hearing God’s commands and assurances he starts his conquests very early in the morning.  And so is the Noble Wife described by King Solomon in Proverbs 31:

"She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants." 
Proverbs 31:15

The Bible actually encourages us to rise early and be productive. For instance, the Book of Proverbs warns against sleeping in and not doing anything as this will cause one to become impoverished:

"How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man." 
Proverbs 6:9-11

The verse above basically echoes what the Apostle Paul tells us through his first letter to the Thessalonian church:” 

"to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one." 
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

When we try our best to be productive, and make the most of our days, we in essence honor God by using the skills, talent and time He has blessed us with. Much of our time nowadays is wasted on social media, sleeping in because of overconsumption of digital contents, and basically mismanagement of time.

We may not have enough time and energy to go to church on Sundays. If we ever do, we get there late, and we get sleepy. We do not have time to pray and read His words on a daily basis because much of our time is wasted late at night that we do not get extra hours in the day because we want to catch up on sleep.

While our Lord and Savior wants us to enjoy, He also wants to see us worshipping Him. He does not want to see us serving other “gods,” whom we dutifully listen, watch, and read about in the digital stratosphere. Loving God with all our heart, and all our strength also means making sure we have both the time and energy to sincerely seek Him.

One of the best examples is Mary Magdalene. In her earnest devotion to Jesus Christ, she was the first to have discovered that Jesus was no longer in the tomb as she decided to rise early to visit the tomb.

"Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb." 
John 20:1

Job, another popular character in the Bible, also habitually rises early. He wakes up ahead of most to worship God and pray for His children. Even Jesus Christ himself modeled to us this practice of early worshipping, as He wakes up at dawn to pray to the Heavenly Father.

 "And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed." 
Mark 1:35

Time is a gift from God. We should honor Him who gives us the freedom to spend it the way we deem fit. We can do this by dedicating time to worship and sincerely seek Him.

Thank you for reading through our devotional today. I invite you to ponder on Psalm 59:16-17 and Proverbs 31:10-31  to dig deeper on today’s topic.

Reflection Question: Are you an early riser? Do you make the most of your days?

Conversation with the Lord: Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of days. Empower and inspire me to use mine to live a life that honors you. Amen.