We are creatures of habit. Habits help us through our day. We can do a similar task without having to be fully engaged in that habit easier than when we are doing something “out of the norm.”

Think about your morning routine. In our house, the weekday routine is the same most every day. When the alarm goes off, we push the snooze button a few times, we cuddle, then pray before getting out of bed. After getting up we shower, pack our lunch bags, give the cats food and water, empty their litter box, eat breakfast while listening to the local news, read the newspaper, do our daily devotions, fill our coffee and hot tea mugs, then Robyn and I both head off to work. We go our own ways with a kiss and a wave. Our weekend morning routine follows a different pattern than during the week, but those two mornings don’t change much week to week either.

Mornings are an important time of day. Before facing the day we should have a routine of looking into the face of God. We should begin each day seeking God and His strength; the strength we will need to do whatever it is we will be doing that day. We should not begin the work or leisure of the day until we have had a few quiet moments with God.

After Moses broke the first two tablets (with the Ten Commandments on them) in a fit of rage (Exodus 32:19), God instructed him to chisel out two new ones and meet with him. Here is what we read in Ex. 34:1-3 – “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Chisel out two new stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that whereon the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on the top of the mountain. No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in the front of the mountain.” 

Notice what God said to Moses. He wanted time alone, just He and Moses, first thing in the morning.

Psalm 92:2 tells us to “proclaim (y)our steadfast love in the morning and (y)our faithfulness by night.”

Jesus was known to get up early in the morning to spend time with His Father. We find this in Mark 1:35 – “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

And David, in Psalm 5, looks for a crack of dawn encounter with God. In v.3 we see these words – “In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.”

So, why not have a morning routine that begins, before your feet hit the floor, with an appointment with God! By doing so, you can have a day influenced by His character and under His control!  

We are now a month away from the official beginning on the 2021 Atlantic Basin Hurricane Season. These storms all form near the equator in warm ocean waters, starting as a tropical disturbance. When its winds are between 35-38 mph it becomes a tropical depression, and once wind speeds are in excess of 38 mph the storm gets another name, a tropical storm. If you are familiar at all with hurricanes, you probably know that their official name is a tropical cyclone, and it becomes a category 1 hurricane when wind speeds reach 74 mph. Many of these tropical occurrences never make it to hurricane strength, with most storms constantly bouncing between various categories as wind speeds and intensity change, sometimes hour by hour.

Life is often that way; we can see our emotions bounce all over the place. You wake up in the morning with anticipation looking forward to a large customer signing a new big contract with your company later that day, only to quickly become angry when you jump in the shower and find that you have no hot water. Soon you get calmed back down and after breakfast and morning devotions you head off the work or school, but quickly experience fear as you almost get t-boned by a car that just ran a red light. Once you get to work your anticipation turns to surprise and sadness when you open our e-mail and find that the customer you had planned to meet with signed with one of your competitors instead of you.

You trudge through the day and after work head off to your son’s baseball game and sit in amazement and joy as he pitches a no hitter against the best team in their league. That evening, as you and your family eat dinner and you listen in on the conversation, but find yourself distracted, thinking about that big meeting tomorrow at work.

In just the course of a few short hours you experienced the roller coaster of anticipation, anger, fear, surprise, sadness, amazement, joy, and distraction. And throw in the state of being hungry, thirsty, tired, hot or cold, etc. and you had a full day bouncing all over the place.

While we, like the tropical storms, often change from minute to the next, God never changes. God, in His three persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You’ve probably heard the saying that the only constant is change. While that is true of us and all the things around us, the opposite is true of God – He is consistent; always good, always loving, always faithful, always all-powerful.

In Malachi 3:6, the Lord says this of himself, “I the LORD do not change.”

Elsewhere, we find this, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).

And the writer of Hebrews says this about Jesus, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (13:8).

So, no matter how uncertain your life is, and how changing the world can be, you can always trust in God’s never-changing and never-ending love and faithfulness.

A number of years ago when we lived in New Albany, Ohio, I coached our oldest daughter’s middle school rec soccer team. One Saturday we traveled to a nearby community to play a team that was undefeated. When we got to the field the outcome of the game was already decided in my girls minds. The smallest girls on the opposing team were much bigger than the biggest girls on my team. These girls were giant-sized. The coach was even big! As hard as I tried to convince my team that we could play with them, we lost and lost bad. The opposing team’s size intimidated us, and once fear set in we were defeated before the start of the game.

Those same years I also coached our younger daughter’s U-10 soccer team. This team was very good and we were winning games easily. One particular game several of our girls were sick and could not play. We were shorthanded, but instead of seeing this as a giant obstacle, these little girls saw it as an opportunity to overcome the odds. Those girls played better, and harder, than I had ever seen them play, and we won the game with two less girls on the field than our opponent.

We all face giants in our lives; things that just seem too big to conquer. These giants represent obstacles that often seem insurmountable. As we stare at these giant mountains or challenges, we are often defeated before the game begins.

A story in the Bible shows us two responses to overcoming the giants we face. In Numbers chapter 13, as Moses and Aaron were ready to lead the people into the Promised Land that flowed with milk and honey (Exodus 3:8), some scouts were sent out to check out the land. These scouts came back saying that the people who lived there were powerful and the cities fortified. Caleb, one of the spokesmen for the Israelites, responded to that alarming news this way, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it (v:30).” He trusted God’s plan.

But, quite the opposite, many of the scouts saw the size of the people and allowed fear to rule their hearts, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are (v.31).” And in verse 33 we read, “We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”

The truth is we need faith to not be consumed by the giants in our path. We need to completely trust that God is bigger than the biggest giant we face. Looking to God, rather than staring at the giant, will give you God-sized strength, and you can say with confidence, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

And not only do you find yourself with God-sized strength in those moments when fear sets in, you also never walk through your fears alone – “For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you” (Isaiah 41:13).

Are you looking at the giants or at God? Look past your giants and look to God.

We are a society that does not like waiting. Whether it is in line at the grocery store, at the drive-thru window, or at the security checkpoint at the airport, we just don’t like to wait. We are a microwave society; we want to push a few buttons and in one minute the meal is ready to eat. Even as the sixty seconds ticks off, we are antsy; we stand there tapping our foot as if to be saying to the microwave, “hurry up!”

When we are waiting, it seems like time crawls along at a turtle’s pace. You know this picture; you look at the clock and it reads ten minutes before three in the afternoon and after what seems like hours you look again, only to see that just ten minutes have passed. Every one of us struggles with some level of impatience; it is just in our DNA.

We often have those same “hurry up” demands of God. We ask Him for something, and we often, if not always, want instant results. And we tell Him what we want and when we want it. But God uses two things to grow our faith – pain and waiting. Not only that, God’s timing is perfect. He knows what we need and when we need it.

The Bible is filled with verses on waiting. In Psalm 27:14 we read, “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” In Micah 7:7 we see, “But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.” (Also Psalm 40:1-3, 130:5; Lamentations 3:25.)

When I get antsy, while waiting on God, I read and re-read this poem by J. Danson Smith, titled “Waiting! Yes, Patiently Waiting!”   

So today, wait for the Lord. His timing is always perfect, even if from your limited perspective it seems as if He is moving at a turtle’s pace!