Choosing God Over Business Every Morning

We, entrepreneurs, have a battle between choosing God and choosing our business, and this often begins when we wake up in the morning.

I've been waking up in the Word every morning for years. It's not easy. If I still struggle to set aside the 100 things I have to do that day for my business, I know others struggle.

Today, I want to give you practicals steps; you can take first thing in the morning to help you choose God and make studying His Word your priority. My entire mission with Daily Godpreneur is to guide you to trust, follow, and serve the Lord in your business, DAILY.

What's Consuming Your Thoughts in the Morning?

Do you use an alarm of some sort? Do you hit snooze once, twice, seven times? Do you lie in bed to “thaw out” for a few minutes, or do you get right up? There are many ways to wake up, but most of us probably lie in bed for a moment to orient ourselves. As you start the process of orienting yourself, do you begin to think about your day and all that is before you? Where do your thoughts go as your mind becomes alert?

We have a choice to make every day, every morning when we wake up. Will it be God, or will it be self?

It is amazing how quickly we can make ourselves, our schedules, or our to-do lists first in our thoughts and priorities. How often do we think of ourselves first and then maybe later at some point give a passing thought to God whom we proclaim as Lord and Savior?

What about you? What is foremost in your mind and heart when you wake up? Who comes first? How do you spend the start of your day? Over the next couple of days, we will look at a practical way we can choose each day to be less self-focused and more God-focused.

Begin today by taking a moment to identify the things, the thoughts, the activities, or the emotions that can consume you and keep you from worshipping God and serving Him.

Guided by a Plan

As we seek to choose the Lord each day, it’s necessary to remember that we all have a desire to follow our flesh and think or do whatever “feels” right or seems easiest. As Paul argues in Romans 8, there is no choice for those outsides of Christ. Their sin entirely controls them. Believers, Paul says, have the Holy Spirit living within them. By the Spirit, we are becoming more and more like Jesus. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to overcome our flesh. As Joshua told the Israelites, we can choose.

How might this choice play itself out, especially first thing in the morning? It seems that most people usually spend a few minutes gathering their thoughts for the day before they get out of bed in the morning. In these moments, it can be a temptation to choose to think first about our day, schedule, what we need to do, who needs to be where, etc. Before we know it, we can fall prey to the lies of the enemy, begin dreading our day or feeling overwhelmed by it, and then try to tackle it as soon as our feet hit the floor.

What if, instead, we were to choose the Lord? What if, by God’s grace, we would choose to fight our sinful flesh, put it to death as God’s Word instructs us, and set our minds on His way instead of allowing our thoughts to run amok? Practically, how would this look?

We would begin by thanking the Lord for the gift of a new day and acknowledge that He alone is sovereign, that He alone is in control—not us. And then, by His grace, we would put aside our thoughts, our concerns, and our agendas and draw near to God by spending time in His Word and prayer.

No matter how much we think about our day or our agenda, the reality is that the day belongs to the Lord. If we start each day, intentionally acknowledging this and acknowledging who we are in Christ, this practice could easily transform how we think about and live out the rest of the day's moments. 

Creating Anchors of Reminders

It might be a good idea to write Joshua 24:15 or a similar passage on a 3×5 card and place it next to your bed or on your bathroom mirror so you can be reminded first thing in the morning to choose God. You can even paste the verse in a reminder in your calendar or schedule it as an alarm on your phone. 

Seeing Scriptures such as these first thing in the morning or throughout the day can help you immediately see and think truth and be able to focus on it instead of the temporary things of your up-coming day. 

We need God’s grace, and this is a reminder that we can choose to set our mind on God, or we can choose to set our mind on ourselves. As soon as we awake, we allow our thoughts to be focused on ourselves or our circumstances. What would we feel in the end? We'll feel discouraged! By contrast, if we choose to pray and seek the Lord instead, there can be peace, hope, and renewal.

Remember, you can choose each day whom you will serve. And though it will take a moment-by-moment reorienting of your mind throughout your day, this choice begins first thing in the morning. So as you enter into this daily choice, trust in the One who created the new day and you. He will provide the grace you need to make each of the days ahead, His.

Take a moment now to pray and seek the Lord. Ask Him to help you choose Him first each day and moment-by-moment throughout the day. Write out Joshua 24:15 or copy and paste it as a reminder into your calendar. May God be your all in all! 

#BecomeDisciplined