Run the Machine

By Rachael Sales  

Throughout the Bible there is evidence of the value of seeking God early. As Americans in a fast paced, technologically driven, appointment based society, the machine called our day runs relentlessly whether we want it to or not. I know that so often I have attempted to get my time before God throughout the day only to find that the machine is an unbridled beast. To slow down the tide of the day and get time before God in the midst of it all is a challenge — not an impossible one, but one all the same. In fact, so vicious was the machine even in Jesus’ day that we find our Lord and Savior himself plotting against the throes of life to prioritize his time with the Father in the early hours. In fact, it is documented that upon hearing of John the Baptist’s death, Jesus tries to pull away into a quiet place, but the demands of the crowd pulled him back into ministry. (King James Version, Matthew 14:13-14) So, throughout the scripture we find Jesus getting up before everyone else to pray. His time of ministering to others was during the day. His time of ministry to His Father was early in the morning and late at night.

Now, if you’re like me, your carnal mind begins to say that Jesus didn’t have a wife and kids to tend to. So it was easier for Him and men like Paul to pull away from the demands of their daily lives. I beg to differ however. The Bible says that the church is Jesus’ bride and I would venture to say that during His time on the earth, the disciples felt very much like His children. There is countless evidence that the disciples and the crowd pulled on His time, and His overall welfare. In fact, Mark 1: 35-39 speaks of a time when Jesus has gone alone to pray and the disciples found Him, informing Him that the crowd was looking for Him. Now this sounds very much like the patter of little feet and the knocking on the bathroom door in the mornings informing me that five little mouths are ready to eat. But what is amazing to me is that in all of these instances Jesus never turned them away. He would come out of that sacred time, declaring that for this reason He had actually come. This says to me that the daytime is a time of ministry to pour out what was poured in by the Father in the quiet of the morning or stillness of the night.
    
So where am I going with this? Well, I believe that the Master submitted to something that we must adhere to. He submitted to the fact that there was no effective ministry without the time spent before the day began and when it was coming to a close. What gave Him the strength to command the machine called life was bowing His strength to the Creator and ruler of the machine during the hours of the machine’s vulnerability.  

No time spent, no authority rendered. That is the obvious lesson to be learned. But wait, there’s a more subtle lesson that we must learn from His actions, and not necessarily His verbal instruction. I believe that having lived on earth in human form, Jesus understood that each day had a set of demands that stopped for no man. The nature of the day is work. The night was created for rest in the Father and the morning for seeking His face. It is a vain, futile attempt to spend the day hours seeking intimacy from the Father, seeking a Word from Him, for it was not created for this purpose. The day is the time for the harvesting of souls, the healing of the sick, the manifestation of what Has been declared in prayer.  It is the time to shout from the rooftops what has been said in our ears.
    
As with everything else in Christ, this is not a law. I am not proposing that we cease all prayer beyond the morning hours. For the Bible informs us to pray without ceasing. I am saying that in looking at our Savior, we should be in pursuit of cultivating lives of seeking God early. Proverbs 8:17 states it best in saying, “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.” The first fruit principle is constantly proven throughout the Word. It applies to more than just our finances. The Bible says that “if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.” (King James Version, Romans 11:16) How much more effective would we be in our daily endeavors if we would dedicate the first of our day and not the part that’s left over to our God? Oftentimes saints, the very thing that we rush to get accomplished before prayer is the very thing that goes lacking because we don’t get His Word, His power, on it.
    
So, let us go boldly to His throne. Let us seek Him early. It will take sacrifice. Our bodies will demand the extra sleep at the start. Our minds will tell us that it doesn’t take all that. But our spirits will soar and soon cause the prior to tag along for the ride. So go sleepy, but go. Go and don’t stop until it’s a part of your daily regiment – our daily regiment, until it’s like breathing. Press through the resistance, the grogginess the grouchiness even, until joy-filled sacrificial worship defines our being. Run the machine called life. Get the marching orders to martial the day’s affairs on behalf of the Kingdom.  I have personally determined that like David, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.” (King James Version, Psalm 63:1) Our lives, the lives of our families, and the livelihood of our ministries cannot afford us not to.

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