Wake Early…

I will wake early (Ps.56, 9)

This is what says a man, who drowned in cares and disappointments.  He will get up early to enjoy the Face of God before he sees any human face. Many servants of God, according to the Holy Scripture, like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel and others, used to wake early. And our Lord, “rising up a great while before day, he went out, departed into a solitary place, and there prayed” (Mk.1, 35)

Women, lamenting Him, came to the tomb “very early in the morning” (Mk.16, 2)

“In the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God” (Ex.16, 12) said the Lord to His people and the heavenly manna was there in abundance with a morning dew. But one had to rise early to pick it.

And there is still heavenly food for the people of God, and even now they need to be filled with it if they want to be able to withstand the sin. Temptations attack you every day, people disappoint you, irritate you and seduce you; every day you yourself incline to confuse and insult people; you need to labor every day, concur evil, walk the narrow path without deviation and hesitation.

Who can do this? The one, who gets his strength in the morning, who opens his hungry soul to accept heavenly food and nourishes himself. That soldier is able to fight, who puts his armor on before stepping onto the battle field. What is awaiting the unarmed one, besides defeat?  Early alarm allows warriors to prepare and when they are armed, they are ready.

So let us wake early not only for our own business, but for God first of all; let us rise early, so that He sees that we search the Kingdom of God before anything earthly, that His words are important to us and His guidance for the upcoming day is irreplaceable for us. Only He, Who knows what is expecting us in the day can armor us with necessary. And don’t say: I’ll do it later. Later – cares and worries, worldly vanity, talks, arguments with people. Later – unmerciful heart, unkind words, sinful thoughts. Later – a difficult realisation that you have submitted yourself to a sin here, did not do right there and isn’t all of this because you came to fight with an unarmed soul?