The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Why Morning Is the Best Time to Pray

Episode Date: October 2, 2020

Do you struggle to find time during the day to pray? Today, Jeff gives us five reasons why the morning is the best time to pray. No matter how unorganized or tired we may feel in the morning, speaking with God in the morning can change how we experience the day. Snippet from the Show “God’s mercy is fresh every morning.” Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail] Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

You're listening to the Jeff Kavens show, episode 186, why morning is the best time to pray. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show. Ah, welcome, and it is. is morning, morning deep in the woods, Minnesota here, looking out at the lake. It's a little windy. It's getting to be fall now. And the beautiful maple trees are changing. A lot of the Canadian geese are going south. And things are looking a little bit different. And they're looking different in so many different ways.

You know, with everything that's going on in our lives with COVID-19, political debates and so much more. it's a very interesting time. And I want to talk to you today about why I think that morning is the best time to pray. And you might automatically be thinking, well, you know what, I'm not a morning person. And we'll talk about that. I don't believe that completely, but we're going to talk about that. And I'm going to give you five reasons why I think morning is the best time to pray with some examples in my own life of how this has really become a rootful time in my life, an established time, a habit in my life. And I think that if you would do that, you might find that turn in the road that you're looking for in your life. You might find the answers that you are looking for. So I've got quite a few scriptures I'm going to be sharing with you. And you can get those from me by simply texting my name, all one word, Jeff Kaven's, at text it to 33777. That's 3377. And that will put you on the list to get all the show notes in the future. This is show 186. And if you do that, if you text my name to 33777, you'll get today's notes.

You'll get show number 374, Lord willing, to share with you. And that's what we really try to do on the show is try to talk about things that are relating to discipleship, your relationship with the Lord, to give you that advice and that example, hopefully, that will be fruitful as far as your relationship with Jesus Christ as a disciple. Hey, coming up, I wanted to tell you this. Many of you know, my good friend, Father Mike Schmitz, we have gone to the Holy Land together, we've gone to other places together. We love to go on pilgrimage together. and we've got a huge announcement, and that is that last June was canceled. That's right.

We had young adults coming from all over the country, and that trip was canceled last June due to COVID. But here's the good news. It's on again for this coming June. And I get questions from people all the time. Are you still going to do it? And the answer is, yeah, it's on the schedule. We're working toward it. And if you go to my website, jeffcavens.com, you can find out the information.

about that pilgrimage. It's the first two weeks of June. Father Mike Schmitz and I will be leading, and there's going to be tremendous singers like Allie Aaliyah and Taylor Tripodi and the Swaffords are going to be coming. And we've got many, many more. So I wanted to tell you about it. I keep forgetting, you know, on these previous shows after I'm done, I think, oh, why didn't I say that? But Father Mike Schmitz will be joining me and we're going to have a great time. And it's unlike any other pilgrim. And I know you have a choice in pilgrimages to different parts of the world. And I think that what we offer in the Holy Land is just plain superior. It's great. Not only do we have great priests with us, but we have mass at very, very important places like Jerusalem and Nazareth and Copernum, Bethlehem. We have masses at all of these major, major cities. And we pray the rosary. and all of the places that you should pray the rosary. And we have a number of really neat surprises that are kind of,

I'm not going to tell you what they are, but they're real boosts in your faith. And you'll hear from Father Mike Schmitz every day, and I will be teaching every day. So get your place in line. Go to my website, jeffcavens.com, and save your place. That's June of 2021. And then the next trip I'll be taking in January

will be January of 2022. So that's a little over a year away, year and a quarter away. And yes, we hope that we can get these pilgrimages back up and going. All right. So we're talking about the morning. And I need to ask you, have you ever woke up in the morning? And there is about a five to ten minute period before you actually get out of bed. And that five to ten minute period is kind of crummy. Do you know what I mean? You, you wake up and you don't even know why, but it's just like, and you can't, you can't get, you know, everything in perspective. And maybe, maybe you didn't finish business yesterday. And something happened at work and you just feel kind of, you know, then you're not clear. You're, you're thinking is cloudy. And so you just have this crummy feeling.

I don't know how else to it, you know, describe it other than you just, kind of feel crummy. So you didn't finish business yesterday, or maybe you've got a huge meeting today, responsibility, doctor's appointment, going to, maybe your schedule is just, wow, it was packed, and you wake up and you feel that, kind of that crummy feeling. Maybe your favorite team, Vikings, twins were beat yesterday by the Astros or your football team. team or your college team was beat. And I know that's not the most important thing in life, but it is kind of cool to wake up and think, yeah, we upset a number one team yesterday, and that was a lot of fun. Maybe the stock market went down yesterday, and it really had an

impact on you, particularly as you get closer to retirement. Or maybe it's just sort of you wake up and it's the same old, same all. I oftentimes will say to people that in terms of meeting with the Lord. And I believe, I sincerely believe that every single day we should have a time where we meet with the Lord. And we pray. And we work life out with the Lord in an open Bible right there in front of us in a notebook. And when I say to people, you know, they'll say, well, they'll ask, well, when do you pray? And I'll say, well, I pray every morning, every morning. And my wife and I pray every morning. It's about an hour to an hour and a half every single morning. We pray. We read Bible. We talk. with one another. We do lexio divina. And when I tell people, you should be meeting with the Lord in the

morning. The number one thing I get back, which I think is, I don't think it's a right answer, to be honest with you. People say, well, I'm just not a morning person. Have you ever said that, or do you feel like maybe that's you? I'm not a morning person. Now, the reason that I don't agree with that is that when you say, I'm not going to meet with God in the morning, because I'm not a morning person. What you're saying is that I have to feel good. I have to be organized. I have to have schedule free. I've got to have some margin. I got to feel good before I meet with the second person of the Trinity. Well, did it ever dawn on you that maybe that's your problem? Seriously, did it ever dawn on you that maybe that excuse is your problem in that you really do need to meet with

God in the morning. First thing, in the morning. And because you don't, you go into the day, complicated, unorganized, no priorities, and life, it just hits you in the face. The tyranny of the urgent, right? Text messages, and emails and calls and unfinished to-do lists. What you really needed, oh, foggy-headed one, what you really needed was you needed to meet with the Lord. And that doesn't mean that you have your suit and your tucks on and you're showered and ready to go and you got your cologne and you got your nice notebook and everything else. No, you meet with the Lord the way you are. And there is a real advantage to this. And people do come up with excuses. I'm not a morning person or I only have so much time to prepare for my job, Jeff. Exactly. That's why you need to use it wisely. Or they'll say, well, you know, without coffee, I'm worthless. And that's all the time I have in them. morning, it's all I can do to just get a cup of coffee and run out to the car and go to work. Well, there's a solution to that. Change your schedule. Don't you think that the Lord wants alert disciples, you might say? You don't want people that are caffeinated and those are the best

disciples? No. Another excuse, maybe the rest of the family is up and going out the door and it's just chaos. Get up a little earlier. Or I'm in touch with the Lord all day long, Jeff, you don't get it. I don't need a time in the morning. I'm just like this walking communion with God. It's amazing. Mm-hmm. I bet it is. Well, let me give you five reasons why I think that morning is the best time to meet with the Lord. And by the way, if you're looking for a scripture that is filled with excuses as to why we can't meet with the Lord. Look at Luke chapter 9 in verse 57 to 62. In fact, that is the Bible reading for today in the liturgy. I came across that this morning in my time of prayer where I got up feeling foggy, hadn't showered. Hair looks like I've been through a tornado,

but the Lord accepted me. He loves me. He didn't say, hey, go, go to the, you know, use the restroom and and get all fixed up before you come back and talk to me, don't you know who I am? No, he accepts me just the way I am. So let's take a look at this, shall we? I'm going to give you five reasons and scripture why I think the morning is the best time to meet with the Lord. Number one, and it probably is the best, and you can't top it, and that is Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, is the example. He is the example. It tells us in Mark chapter 1 and verse 35, it says, and rising very early in the morning while it was still dark.

This morning when I got up, it was dark still, kind of windy. And there was some white caps on the lake. And not many walkers out there this morning. It was dark. It was early. That was the time when Jesus got up, where he rose up. early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. So Jesus had a regular place of prayer, and he often went out very early in the morning, and you have to ask yourself, well, if he is the second person of the Trinity, why in the world is he going out so early? And if he's in constant contact with the father, why did he go out early? And that's a good question. And that's part of the answer, is that if God went out to meet with God, the Father, every morning, how much more do we need to meet with God in the morning? There's such an indecisiveness in our lives when we say, well, I'm going to do it

when I can. And some mornings I do and other mornings I don't. Why not live a life of virtue? Why not live a life of pattern and habit that enables you to grow and to hear the voice of the Lord. And so if Jesus went out early in the morning, which was his custom, how about us? Why don't we follow him? Paragraph 236 of the Catechism, remember to put that in the notes for you. Paragraph 236 of the Catechism talks about the two aspects that we need to know about God. One is we need to know the theology, the heart of our father, but then we also need to know his plan. And this is a perfect time to do it in the morning. morning. The catechism also says that Jesus, what he said and what he did throughout the day,

came out of his time of prayer. That's what it says. It says that it came, that everything he said, in other words, all of the board meetings that he had to, that he had to go to, all of the meetings and family obligations and all of that, all of that came out of his time in the morning. I love that. So number one, Jesus is the example. I've got four more reasons why the morning is the best time to meet with God every single day. And I'm going to give those four to you right after this. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, I'm Sonia Corbett, the Bible study of Angelista. When I became Catholic, I had a really hard time understanding the role Mary was supposed to play in my life. So I went to her and I told her,

I just don't get it. I need your help. And guess what? Mary did just that. She showed me a way to pray that has revolutionized my entire life. Mary has been called the mother of listening. She didn't just hear the word. She knew how to hear it in light of her own relationships, circumstances, and habits. And then she let the word transform her. I realized that I had to share what I was learning about Mary's way of praying with others. So I wrote how to pray like Mary, a step-by-step guide to discovering God's voice in the scriptures and letting him transform your heart. I invite you to learn more about how to pray like Mary at ascensionpress.com or on Amazon. on. Hey, welcome back talking about why morning AM is the best time to pray and to meet with Jesus.

I love it because, you know, I, when I wake up in the morning, the one thing I need more than anything else is the Lord Jesus Christ. I need the mind of Christ. I need his perspective, his power, and his wisdom. I need it every morning. and think about just going off and living your day every single day without time with the Lord when you had the time to actually meet with him as a disciple. And even if you don't know what to say, just to look at them, you know. Some people meet in their homes. Some people go out and take a walk and sit somewhere and meet with the Lord. Some people go up to the church right away and have a holy hour.

There's a lot of different ways that you can meet with the Lord every single morning. but I do encourage you to fix yourself on one of them and make it a habit. Okay, so the first one was the best example as to why we should, or the best reason why we should make morning a time of prayer. The first thing, Jesus did it. Jesus did it. Mark chapter 1 in verse 35. Number two, you establish your trust and you place your trust for the day. What do I mean by that?

Well, when you get up in the morning, you have a question to answer, that is, what are you going to put your trust in today? What are you going to trust in? Who are you going to trust? And the answer is, is that we trust the Lord. We trust the Lord. Now, Psalm 143 verses 8 through 10 is absolutely chalk filled with incredible insights about the morning and what we do in the morning when we meet with the morning in prayer. Psalm 143 versus 8 through 10 says, let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord, I have fled to you for refuge. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me on level ground.

Oh, wow. All right. Okay, Psalm 143, 8 through 10, you got your money's worth right there. If you didn't hear anything else, that is really fantastic. So when you establish your trust for the day, listen to Psalm 143. You hear God in the morning. He delivers you from your enemies. He teaches you to do his will and you ask for his good spirit to lead you. Isn't that something? Isn't that something? Isn't that amazing. Man, I love that. And also in Psalm 59, verse 16, but I will sing of your strength. I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning, for you have been to me a fortress, a refuge in the day of my distress. And I love what it says in Isaiah 33 too. I'll put this in the notes as well. Oh, Lord, be gracious to us. We wait for you. Be our arm every morning. It is to be our strength and our support, our salvation in the time of trouble. You see, if you go to the Lord in the morning before your day begins, you can settle your anxiety issues and those things that you are so uncertain about. You can bring those to the Lord. I love that. Number three,

we're talking about why the morning is the best time to meet with the Lord every day, not Monday through Friday, every day, which is what we try to do in the Kaven's household. We don't have days off, you know. Lord, it's Saturday, won't need your help today. Thank you, though. I'll see you back on Monday morning. No, we don't, that's not the way we do it. It's every single day. Now, number three, the reason why mornings are so good to meet with the Lord, I love this reason, and that is that God's mercy is fresh every morning. Isn't that beautiful? Lamentations chapter 3, verses 22 and 23 says, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new, or one translation says fresh, they are fresh every morning. Great is your

faithfulness, Lord. So when you get up in the morning, you got that fresh coffee, you got that fresh lemon, you're not lemonade, what do you call? Orange juice. You got your fresh orange juice, and it's a brand new day. What is fresh from the Trinity every single day? His mercy. His mercy. Maybe you did blow it yesterday. Maybe yesterday was just a plain screwed up day that didn't end well. And you don't ever want to see a day like that. You know you made mistakes. You know you treated someone poorly. You know you didn't make good decisions. I got news for you. His mercy is fresh every morning. It's fresh every morning, but you got to go to the bakery. You've got to go and meet with him and realize that he loves you and his mercy is being extended to you every single day. And I think that

when you receive his mercy every single day and you meditate on the personality of God, the traits of God. It is such a blessing to you. It's such a blessing to you. You see, God is meeting you in the morning with his best. And that's why we, as Jesus did, can meet with God in the morning and give him our best. We give him the best part of the day. Well, Jeff, that's four to five for me. Stop. Stop it with that, okay? Meet with them in the morning because there are benefits. here. You need, you don't need his mercy starting at four. You need his mercy, the first thing in the morning. You don't need to establish his trust at four. You need to do it in the morning, right? Jesus' example was in the morning, he met with the father. And so we are typically, after you settle down for a few

minutes, you're more clear thinking in the morning than two o'clock in the afternoon when you need a power nap. So you're giving God your best. And every morning, be reminded of the character and the plan of God. Again, paragraph 236 of the catechism. Psalm 90 in verse 14 says, Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love. That, this is why, see, this is why in the morning, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Why are we such rejoicing people? Why are we glad? Well, God satisfied me in the morning with his steadfast love. I love that. I love it. Okay, number four, morning is a great time to reboot. It's a great time to reboot. What do I mean by that?

Well, I think that every single day reflects a lifetime. You've got the sun coming up. You've got the sun going down. You've got 24 hours a day. And it starts off with more energy. It ends with you are tired. It's kind of like life in general. and every single morning you get a new opportunity to reboot or to start over with the Lord.

And I think that's a great grace. I think that is, you know, if we didn't have mornings and your life started, my November 8th, 1957, and since November 8th, 1957, I have been going and going and going and going. And here we are in 2020, and I have not. stop. I haven't stopped. What would life be like if that's the way we were created? But every day we have this cycle and you get this opportunity to reboot. In other words, my friend, tomorrow morning is a new day for you. It's a new opportunity for you. And I love that great quote that Billy Graham used to say at his crusades. He would say, now is the hour of decision. Today is the hour of

decision. Right now is the hour, and we get a new day every day to reboot. It tells us in Proverbs chapter 30 and verse 5, for his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Now, those first five minutes might be another story, but when you get out of bed and you get a shower or whatever you're going to do in the morning and you sit down with the Lord, or you sit down with the Lord before your shower, there's going to come a few minutes where suddenly you're going to realize that you're sitting with the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, and joy comes with the morning. As the prophets said in the Old Testament, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

And that joy comes in the morning, says Proverbs. It comes in the morning. And maybe you had a weeping night. And it was a long night. And you wake up in the morning and think, oh, thank God, it's morning. Oh, that was an awful night. Well, when you meet with the Lord, joy can come in the morning. And I love that idea that every day is like a new lifetime. It's a chance to start over. Proverbs chapter four, well, you're getting a lot of scripture this week, aren't you? And I'm going to put it all in the show notes. Might be some good scripture to meditate on, dulexio divina, or memorize them. Yeah, we still do that. We still, we still memorize God's word. We hide it in our heart. Proverbs 4, verses 18 and 19 says,

But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. See, our path begins in the morning. Our path begins in the morning. The path the righteousness or the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn. It just keeps shining brighter and brighter until full day. And the way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not know over what they stumble. That's good. Hey, number five, number five, why is it so important to meet with the Lord in the morning? Because it establishes your expectations for the day. You establish your expectations in the morning, for the day, as it says in Ecclesiastes chapter 11 and verse 6, in the morning, sow your seed,

and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper this or that, or whether both alike will be good. And so it's in the morning that we sow seed. We pray for our children. We pray for the people we work with. We're sowing seed in the morning. And then through out the day we're watching it grow. We don't know which seeds are going to grow today, but could be this one, that one, or could be both. But we don't want to sow seed at 6 p.m. Now, you can. Don't get me wrong. It's not what I'm saying, but that wins the best time. The best time is the early time, and then you can watch it grow. So the morning is a great time to establish expectations, plant the seed, watch your day. Says in Psalms 5 and 3,

Five in verse three, O Lord in the morning, you hear my voice in the morning, I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. My friends, those are the five reasons why I think it's better to meet with the Lord in the morning. And you might have more. And if you want to write those to me, you want to send them to me, you can write me at my email address, The Jeffcaven Show at ascensionpress.com. That's the Jeffcaven show at ascensionpress.com. I would love to. hear from you. And I pray with all of my heart that God will bless you and that you can start a new habit in your life. Seriously, let me know how that is going in your life. Again, if you want to go to Israel with Father Mike Schmitz and myself next June of 2021, then go to my website,

chuffcavens.com. And if you haven't registered there, you're going to get a special gift right off the bat. And I'll give you a hint. It's going to help you exchange news programs for the word of God. Kind of interesting. You'll get that. Okay, my friend, let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you for my friends. I thank you, Lord, for my friends who I know long for you and hunger for you. Help us, Lord, to establish healthy habits and patterns in our life that will give you the best and give you the opportunity to to change our lives. Help us to be real, Lord. Real with you and real with ourselves. And to live a life like Jesus, like you. We thank you for this in the mighty name of Jesus. And Lord,

also we pray for our government and for all that's going on in Washington. Oh, God, may you will be done. We pray all this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Have a great day, my friend. I love you. Thank you.