Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
What were your first thoughts this morning? I can imagine some of you may not even recall your thoughts, you just sprung into action. I know there's different personalities, but some may have first thought of coffee, because we have to get coffee before we even start to think about anything else. If you're anything like me, my thoughts immediately jump to, what does my day look like? We start planning out and thinking through the day.
Do you know what? There's a lot of research that's gone into your first and last thoughts of the day and the impact they have on mood, productivity, and even your health. That's why I absolutely love the practicality of Scripture. God is so incredibly wise, and He knows exactly what we need to hear in our Verse of the Day.
Psalm chapter 92, verse 2 says, "It is good to proclaim Your unfailing love in the morning, Your faithfulness in the evening."
The Power of God's Love
Before all the current day research around our first thoughts in the morning, last thoughts at night, and the impact it has on us—here we have Scripture that tells us to proclaim God's unfailing love in the morning and His faithfulness in the evening. I don't know about you, but there are some times when you're doing something out of fear—say you’re in a workplace environment that's fear-based, all about production and what you can do—and now you have fear of losing your job. That is not a fun environment at all, and that's why it's taking a step back and starting your day through the lens of love.
Look at everything as being done out of love, instead of being done out of fear. Maybe it's somebody that you have fallen in love with. Remember that feeling you had when you were head over heels in love with this person. Do you know what? Doing something for them didn't feel like work. It felt just like an outward expression of the love you felt.
Capture that moment. If our first thoughts of the day are about God's unfailing love, now you look through that lens for your entire day. As you start planning out your day, and you start thinking through the stressors of your day, you’ve actually started looking at it through the lens of God's unfailing love.
Love Throughout Scripture
This is how significant the topic of love is to God. When Jesus was asked, what is the greatest commandment of all the commandments? He replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind." First Corinthians chapter 13 is the love chapter. It talks about all these spiritual gifts that people in chapters 12 and 14, but in chapter 13, it says, "Even beyond all of these spiritual gifts, the greatest is love." It's the first fruit of the Holy Spirit that's mentioned—love, joy, peace, and so on.
Love is all throughout Scripture. Start off your day being reminded of God's unfailing love. I just want to tell you, God convicted me of this because like I mentioned, my first thought in the morning is, what do I have to do today? I start planning my day and I would just encourage you—when you end your day as well—be thinking of His faithfulness. What does that do? It looks back on the day and even though there may be difficulties, struggles, and possibly even mistakes that you made, you reminded of God's faithfulness.
A Challenge for This Week
I'm going to encourage you with something. Will you join me? I don't normally ask for this, but will you join me for the next week? Do this every single day. Start the morning off by thinking about God's unfailing love. At the end of the day, reflect back on His faithfulness. I think you'll see God throughout your day if you reflect back on His faithfulness. Will you join me in that?
I would also encourage you, if there's somebody else that you want to join you in this, share this with them. I would love for us to be sharing this and be working together to start the morning off thinking of God's unfailing love and ending the day be reminded of His overwhelming faithfulness. Will you join me? We'll look forward to what God's going to do in and through you as you practice this.