Early Hearts

What do you think about leftovers? Now, I can go to my Nanny's house and her leftovers are wonderful! But leftovers at my house -- well, they're just not too exciting. Most leftovers here end up with a two-week growth, and feed local possums & raccoons.

God doesn't deal in leftovers. We read in Lamentations 3:21-23: "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It because is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." New every morning! Consider it: each morning while we sleep, God is present with New Mercy prepared to engulf us. Yet!  Often with little [or no] thought of His fresh mercies, we dress, eat, hurriedly do our morning things ... then, we do our afternoon things ... then, we do our evening things. Tired and exhausted, we dutifully give God what we can muster before we crash into our beds at night ... our leftovers. Psalm 63:1 says, "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee;" at the "dawn of day," at "first light, as soon as "day breaks." Mark records Jesus' quiet time, "Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed." (1:35) I like Adam Clarke's words, "What first lays hold of the heart in the morning is likely to occupy the place all the day." God deserves our freshness, our "early hearts," certainly more than what is left at day's end. Early today, embrace Him and know His fresh and tender mercies!