Joni and Friends 6 October 2022 Devotional: Arise, Shine…

You are reading Joni and Friends 6 October 2022 Devotional, Thursday Daily Devotional Message. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Read Joni and Friends 6 October 2022 Devotional below;

TOPIC: Arise, Shine…

Even though I am not a morning person, I have learned over the years that it is the most important part of my day.

When the alarm goes off my head is groggy, my thoughts are foggy, and I have zero inclination to bound out of bed into a new day (even if I could—which I can’t). Desperately craving another hour of sleep, I lie there thinking about someone coming into my bedroom to give me a bed bath, give me range-of-motion exercises, do toileting routines, get me dressed, sit me up in my wheelchair, push me to the bathroom, brush my teeth, blow my nose, brush my hair, and… I tell the Lord, “I don’t have energy for this. I can’t do this.” That is my natural, unvarnished, human response to another day as a quadriplegic.

When I was a child, before my injury, it wasn’t that way. I would hear my mother call from downstairs, “rise and shine!” She sounded so upbeat and cheery, no wonder I threw back the covers to race downstairs for breakfast. But I don’t race anywhere now, and my quadriplegia seems more of a challenge to me than it ever has before.

That’s why I cling to Isaiah 60, verse 1. It’s a verse for my mornings, and maybe it will become the verse for your mornings too:

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.”

My friend Lynn, who struggles with mornings as I do, told me, “As I meditate on this Scripture, it occurs to me that the glory of the Lord is upon me, whether I feel it or not. It rises with me on each new day.”

I am making it my goal to step into that reality. If the glory of the Lord rises upon me with every fresh, new morning, I want to agree with God. I want to rise and invite the light of the Lord Jesus to illumine my day. The Bible assures me that “my light has come” (see Isaiah 60:1), so I tell my soul to come into alignment with the Word of God. As my girlfriends get me dressed and sit me up in my wheelchair, I tell my heart to listen to the Scripture and answer the call of God on my life.

My friend, I encourage you to do the same. Time and again, as you look back on your life, God truly has met you with the dawning of each new day. His mercies are new every morning, the Bible says, and he graciously pours out those mercies upon you.

You have every reason to rise and shine.

Going Deeper
“Wake up, sleeper,

rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

Ephesians 5:14

…as I think you have realised, the present time is of the highest importance—it is time to wake up to reality. Every day brings God’s salvation nearer. The night is nearly over, the day has almost dawned. Let us therefore fling away the things that men do in the dark, let us arm ourselves for the fight of the day! Romans 13:11-12 (Phillips)

Morning is a time to celebrate God’s faithfulness and his fresh mercies on your life for the day ahead. What kind of change to your morning routine might help you meditate on these truths and bask in his presence as the sun rises?

Thank you for reading Joni and Friends 6 October 2022 Devotional Message