O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
    in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. (ESV)

The writer C.S. Lewis once said that our first task as we awake in the morning is to push back all the battalions of rushing or anxious thoughts and get them into some sort of order. Otherwise they will overwhelm us.

The Psalmist here speaks of this sort of thing as offering a sacrifice. We give the coming day to God. Let Eugene Peterson describe it: “In the act of offering we give up ownership and control, and watch to see what God will do with it. With a deep awareness that the God who speaks life into us also listens when we speak, we put into words the difficulties and delights that we foresee in the hours ahead. We assemble fears and hopes, apprehensions and anticipations, and place them on the altar as an offering.”

This day is no accident. It is not random. God has his purposes for us in it. God can help us sort out the mess it may hint at or wrestle with the challenges it may present. He will also want to alert us to the not so obvious delights inherent in this day.

And so we do as the Psalmist suggests: we watch. What will God do with this self-offering? What sense will he make of it? What rays of light will pierce the threatened darkness? What impossibilities will become possible? Each day we offer, we watch, we wait, we trust.

Blessings

Hope 103.2 is proudly supported by

David