From the Edges – First Things First – Morning Devotional

From the Edges – Morning Devotions

First Things First –

Pastor Calvin Cook – September 3, 2024

Scripture focus – John 10:1-5 1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

What is the first thing you do every morning. I mean on normal mornings when you have not been startled from your sleep, by an alarm, a beep or ring of some electronic device or telephone, or someone else. What is your awaking thought. I have been blessed or cursed with an internal alarm clock. I am usually awake before the alarm sounds and the rush of the day begins. I love those moments in the morning. The quietness that precedes the storm of life of that particular day. I have really been trying to savor those moments and they are moments that are too few.

I have come to realize that it is usually those first waking moments that will prepare me for the day and how I will deal with the day, the demands, the plans, the things before me both known and unknown. This morning in those pre-alarm moments I prayed to hear from God. The first thing I desired this morning was to hear from God. Before the me in me, or someone else could speak a word, or I picked up the phone, I just desired, I needed to hear from God.  This must be the first thing first.

As I share these thoughts, I am imagining the scene when Jesus walked this earth. When Jesus was traveling with his disciples, and they had stopped to rest for the night. After a night of sleeping on a hillside the morning dawn begins to break and the disciples begin to rustle and wake from their sleep. They look around anxious for the new day of following Jesus and they can’t seem to locate him. Then in a distance they see Jesus, prostate before the Lord, praying, speaking to His heavenly father. Jesus has gone off to a solitary place, to not only speak but hear and listen to His Father in Heaven.

The need that the first thing first must become essential even required as followers of Jesus. What is and should be our important first thing is often skewed in many ways. The first thing we need to do is examine ourselves and where we are in our relationship with Jesus.

John 10 has always been a scripture referred to about following Jesus the Great Shepherd. The early verses really speak truth to me this morning “he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice” Here are three essential parts that should make up our faith : Jesus goes always before us, we are never in the lead, 2^nd we follow Jesus, first and foremost, before anything else we are followers of Jesus 3. We as sheep know the voice of the Shepherd. The importance of first things first every morning to hear from God, the desire to know Jesus with all our heart and most importantly to follow where he leads.

What was a simple thought has become a plan. That the first thing is I must desire to hear from God and carry that with me through the rest of the day. Lord hear my prayer after I first hear you speak into my heart and soul – Amen