The Morning Hour

LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch." — Psalms 5:3 .

“ The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.” — Isaiah 50:4.

From the earliest ages, God's servants have thought of the morning as the time fitted for the worship of God. It is still regarded by all Christians both as a duty and a privilege to devote some portion of the beginning of the day to seeking fellowship with God. Many Christians, especially the Student's Christian Association, observe The Morning Watch; the Y. P. C. E. Society speaks of it as the Quiet Hour; others use the name of the Still Hour or the Quiet Time.

All these, whether they think of a whole hour or half an hour, or a quarter of an hour, unite with the Psalmist in what he says, "O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice."

In speaking of the extreme importance of this daily quiet time of prayer and meditation on God’s Word, Mr. Mott has said: “Next to receiving Christ as Saviour, and claiming the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we know of no act attended with larger good to ourselves or others, than the formation of an encouraged resolution to keep the morning watch, and spend the first half-hour of the day alone with God.” At first sight, the statement appears too strong. The act of receiving Christ as Saviour is one of such infinite consequences for eternity, the act of claiming the Holy Spirit is one that works such a revolution in the Christian life, that such a simple thing as the firm determination to keep the morning watch hardly appears sufficiently important to be placed next to them.

However, if we think of how impossible it is to live out our daily lives in Christ as our Savior from sin, or to maintain a walk in the leading and power of the Holy Spirit, without daily, close fellowship with God, we soon shall see the truth of the sentiment. This is because it simply means the fixed determination that Christ shall have the whole life, that the Holy Spirit shall in everything be fully obeyed. The morning watch is the key to the position in which the surrender to Christ and the Holy Spirit can be unceasingly and fully maintained.

To realise this, let us first look at what ought to be the object of the morning watch. The morning watch must not be regarded as an end in itself.

It is not sufficient that it gives us a blessed time for prayer and Bible study, and so brings us a certain measure of refreshment and help. It is to serve as a means to an end. And that end is to secure the presence of Christ for the whole day. Personal devotion to a friend or a pursuit means that that friend or pursuit shall always hold their place in the heart, even when other engagements occupy the attention. Personal devotion to Jesus means that we allow nothing to separate us from Him for a moment.

To abide in Him and His love, to be kept by Him and His grace, to be doing His will and pleasing Him- this cannot possibly be an intermittent thing to one who is truly devoted to Him. “I need Thee every hour,” “Moment by moment I am kept in His love.” These hymns are the language of life and truth. “In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day,” “I the Lord do keep it; I will wter it every mom These are words of Divine power. The believer cannot stand for one moment without Christ. The personal devotion to Him refuses to be content with anything less than to abide always in His love and His will. Nothing less is the true scriptural Christian life. The importance and blessedness and true aim of the morning watch can only be seen as nothing less than its first object.

The clearer the object of our pursuit is, the better we shall be able to adapt the means to its attainment. Consider the morning watch now as the means to this great end: I want to secure absolutely the presence of Christ all the day, to do nothing that can interfere with it. I feel at once that my success for the day will depend upon the clearness and the strength of the faith that seeks, finds and holds HIM in the closet. Meditation, prayer, and the word will all be used as subordinate and auxiliary to this: the link for the day between Christ and I must be renewed and firmly fastened in the morning hour. At first, it may appear as if the thought of the whole day, with all its possible cares, pleasures, temptation, may disturb the rest I have enjoyed in my quiet devotion. It is possible; but it will be no loss.

True religion aims at having the character of Christ so formed in us that even in our most common acts, His temper and disposition shall show themselves. The spirit and the will of Christ are meant so to possess us that in our oneness with men, in our relaxation, in our business, it shall be a second nature to us to act according to them. All this can be, because Christ Himself, as the Living One, lives in us. Be not disturbed if at first the aim appears too high or difficult, and occupies too much of your time in the hour of private prayer. The time you give it will be richly rewarded. You will return to prayer and scripture with new purpose and new faith.

As the morning watch begins to have its effect on the day, the day will react in its first half-hour, and fellowship with Christ will have a new meaning and a new power. It will especially have its influence on the spirit in which you keep the morning watch.

As the grandeur of the aim-unbroken fellowship with God in Christ through the day and the true nature of the means to secure it- a definite conscious meeting with Christ and a securing His presence for the day-possesses us, it will be seen that the one essential thing is, whole-hearted purpose: the fixed determination, whatever effort or self-denial it may cost, to win the prize. In study or on the sport field, every student knows what need there is of vigorous will and determined purpose if we are to succeed.

Religion needs, and indeed deserves, not less but more of intense devotion. If anything, surely the love of Christ needs the whole heart. It is this fixed determination before everything to secure Christ’s presence that will overcome every temptation to be unfaithful or superficial in the keeping of our pledges. It is this will that makes the morning watch itself a mighty means of grace in strengthening character, and nerving us to say No to every call for self-indulgence. It is this will that will enable us at once, when we enter the inner chamber and shut the door, to be there with our whole heart, ready at once for our oneness with Christ. And it is the determination that from the morning watch on, will become the keynote of our daily life.

In the world, it is often said: Great things are possible to any man who knows what he wills, and wills it with all his heart.

The student who has made personal devotion to Christ his watchword, will find in the morning hour as the place where his insight into his holy calling is renewed day by day; where his will is braced up to walk worthy of it; and his faith rewarded by the presence of Christ waiting to meet him, and take charge of him for the day. We are more than conquerors through Him who loves us. A living Christ waits to meet us.