Win the Morning

Life is difficult. Life is difficult. In fact, the Bible tells us that life is difficult. If anybody ever tries to preach a message that doesn't include the fact that life is difficult, then they're not preaching the message of Scripture. Jesus said in John 16, “In this world, you will have trouble.” (NIV) Now he goes on to say, “I have overcome the world.” So, there's hope, there's strength. Like, we have confidence in who Jesus is, but in this world, you'll have trouble.

And that word for trouble is the word ‘tribulation,’ meaning that these are not small challenges. These aren't light difficulties. These are things that are significant. This is a darkness that is so deep, it can feel like it's consuming all the light. That's the word here for trouble. It is a young Ukrainian girl stabbed to death on a train in Charlotte. It's the shooting of a Catholic school…in a Catholic school in Minneapolis. It's a 31-year-old husband and father being assassinated while speaking at a university in Utah.

And so, what it can feel like is that every morning we wake up and we don't know what the headlines are going to be, but we know that darkness is waiting. And what that means is that we end up carrying some sadness and some grief with us that can at times just feel like it's sitting really heavy on our chest. What that means is that sometimes we have to fight back anger and certainly confusion. Things just don't make sense; things don't unfold the way we think they should or that would make sense to us if we were sitting in God's seat— which we're not.

And so, we pray, we pray for the church. The church is called to be a light in the darkness. And the way we see it, church, is that the darker it is, the brighter the light shines, Ephesians says. And so, we pray, Jesus, let us be a light. Somehow, let us do what you tell us to do of loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us.

And so, it's a time to pray. It's a time to reflect on our own lives. I often say at a funeral that this is a time when we gently close the eyes of the dead, but we open the eyes of the living.

The Bible says in Psalm 90, verse 12, “Teach us, God, to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” God, teach us to live with an awareness that our days are numbered so that we live with an intentionality about our lives. That we don't just go by day to day, week to week, month to month, without really thinking about our lives, but teach us to number our days.

James 4:14 says, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a while and then disappears.” And we need to be reminded of the temporariness of this life, that from our perspective, the years run together, but compared to eternity, none of us are here very long. And that's not meant to scare us. The Scriptures aren't meant to scare us, but they're meant to wake us up. They're meant to help us pay attention to our one and only lives and understand that moments like these matter…that matter.

And we need to look up long enough to recognize that. That one day we'll stand before God, and on that day, it won't matter what anybody else thought of you. It won't matter what your boss thought about you or your critics said about you. It won't matter how many followers you had or what your bank account looked like or what car you drove or house you lived in. It won't matter who won the last election. It won't matter what grade you got on the exam this past week. Like, what will matter is your relationship with Jesus.

And so, this is a good time to just pause and ask a question: If this is your last day, are you ready? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus? Have you confessed that you're a sinner who needs a Savior? Have you believed that Jesus died on the cross for your sins? That he rose again so that you could have eternal life? Is that where you have put your hope? Is that where you find your confidence? Jesus defeated death so you can live. That's the platform.

And so, we pray and we reflect on our lives, but we also, if we're honest—and I think we should be—we find ourselves in moments like these and weeks like these, asking questions that have perhaps always been there below the surface. But when certain headlines hit the news, those questions get louder. Like, how do we make sense of such evil? And how do we respond when violence becomes the answer to disagreement? How do we find hope when darkness seems overwhelming? Like, how do we even…how do we even do that?

And so, I want to talk to you about some of those questions, because this is true. And this isn't just true globally, like, this is true personally. It's not just the darkness in the headlines; it's like the darkness in our hearts and darkness in our homes. And it's the darkness when we're in these quiet moments alone with our thoughts. Life is difficult. That is actually the first line of the book called The Road Less Traveled, which according to the Guinness Book of World Records, holds the record for the longest time on the New York Times bestseller list. The Road Less Travel at six…last time I checked, 694 weeks. Bestseller for 13 years. Starts off, “Life is difficult.”
But in the midst of the difficult circumstances that we have no control over, in the midst of the darkness that can seem overwhelming, in the midst of grief and fear, the Bible tells us God's will is for you to live with joy and gratitude. How do you do that? Like, I know that's what you want. I want that. But it's not just what you want, it's what God wants for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 say, “Rejoice always.” Some translations: “Be joyful always and pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will.” You wonder what God's will is for your life, and you lay awake at night and say, God, what do you want from me? What's your will for me? This is…this is my will for you, God says, is that you be joyful, that you pray continually. You give thanks in all circumstance. And there's always and continually, in all circumstances, not just some of the time, not just when things are going well and everything's unfolding the way we hoped that it would, and things just make sense for us.

All of life is up and to the right. Like, no, it's always, all the time, in all circumstances. And so, how do we do that? How do we live with that kind of joy when life is difficult and we're hit with wave after wave of difficulties and everywhere we look we're reminded of how hard things can be? How do you find that kind of peace when maybe you're carrying a lot of shame and regret and you don't know what to do about it, but it feels…it just feels like too much. You just can't go back and do things differently. You wish you could, but you can't. And now it's like every day you're just reminded of the reality of your decisions, what it's done to you, the people around you, and it just all feels like too much.

How do you find victory over temptation, where it just seems to get the better of you? Like, you don't want to keep doing what you've been doing, but you keep doing it? How do you find victory? How do you intentionally fill your mind with thoughts that are true and God honoring? How do you overcome the voices in your head that tell you, Hey, it's too late and things are too dark and evil is winning?

So, the answer, I believe, is connected to the series we're in called ‘Every Thought Captive,’ where the Bible would teach us that either you take your thoughts captive or they're taking you captive. That the way we tear down these strongholds in our life is by being renewed in our minds, that we partner with the Holy Spirit in experiencing this mind transformation. We align our thoughts with what God says. And as we do, he gives us a new way of looking at things. He gives us a new way of thinking. He transforms our minds, and as he transforms our minds, our lives change.
And so, what I want to do is focus this in a little bit as we go in this series and talk to you about taking your thoughts captive at a certain time of the day, specifically taking your thoughts captive first thing in the morning. Now, listen, I know some of you are not morning people. I get it. Some of you don't…you don't even…you don't even believe in God till after lunch. (Laughter) That's sort of how you feel about it. Like, you wouldn't say that out loud, but the people around you might…like, are you a Christian yet? Okay, I'll give you another hour, and we'll see if it kicks in after you have the coffee. Because you're just not a…you're just not a morning person.

So, I'm going to talk to you about the importance of taking your thoughts captive in the morning. But I want you to hear me. I'm not putting, like, a time on what the morning is for you. It's just whenever you wake up. All right, so that might be five something. That might be ten something. If it's eleven something, I mean…okay, but really, what we're saying is what you think about when you first wake up has a way of determining what you think about through the rest of the day. Like, your thoughts early in the morning have impact on who you are.

I don't remember where I first heard the phrase, “win the morning.” I think I heard it from…I know I heard it from my junior high soccer coach. He may have been the first person. He would…he just took all of it too seriously. I don't know if you ever had a coach like this, like, in junior high, where you're like, this is not professional soccer. (Laughter) That's not what…that’s not what we're doing here. But he…he coached as if it were.

And he insisted we have our practices before school instead of after. And we'd show up half awake, and he would blow his whistle and yell at us with this annoying William Wallace like energy and say, “Win the morning. Win the morning, boys, and you win the day.” Have a sprint back and forth. And look, we were tolerating the morning, I feel like.

And I thought we should have gotten credit for that. Like, we were there tolerating the morning, but he wanted us to win the morning. And I…my question was always, Why can't we win the afternoon? (Laughter) I'm all for winning. Does it really matter when we win? And my coach would say, “Yeah, it does.” You got to win the morning if you want to win the day.

And I think there's a lot of wisdom in that. And what I discovered is that there's a reflection of this in Scripture. Like, the Bible would teach and would prioritize I believe how we spend our morning hours, our time with God in the morning. I did just a quick survey of Scripture on this. Abraham, Genesis, chapter 22:3 and 5, rose early in the morning to split wood for burnt offerings and to worship God. Moses, Exodus 24, Exodus 34 rose early in the morning to worship God, to meet with God. Gideon rose early in the morning to find the lord's favor, Judges 6, Judges 7. Proverbs 31 describes a godly woman as one who rises early and with intentionality.

Hezekiah worshiped God first thing in the morning, 2 Chronicles 29. Job made it his habit to rise early in the morning and to pray for his children. Isaiah spoke about waking up and meeting with God in the mornings, Isaiah, chapter 50, verse 4. You read through the Psalms, and David uses this as almost a refrain. This ‘in the morning.’ Let's look at a few of these together.

Psalm 5:3, “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice. In the morning, I lay my request before you.” And then here's what happens. Because he starts his day this way, then throughout the day, what's he do? He waits expectantly. Because he starts his day by praying and laying his request before God, it changes the way that he lives out the rest of his day. Throughout the day, he's living with this anticipation of how God's going to show up because of how he started his day.

Psalm 143:8, “In the morning God, bring me word of your unfailing love, for I put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.” God in the morning just give me direction. Help me know the path I should take. Psalm 59:16, “But I will sing of your strength in the morning. In the morning, I will sing of your love, for you are my fortress and my refuge in times of trouble.” Psalm 88:13, “But I cry to you for help, Lord. In the morning, my prayer comes before you.”

In the morning, in the morning, in the morning…in the morning I worship. In the morning, I seek your direction. In the morning, I'm reminded of your love for me. In the morning, I ask you for help. How you start your day, the thoughts you first think have a way of setting the direction for the rest of your day. And then ultimately your days become your life.

Jesus modeled this for us. In Mark chapter 1, it's this crazy busy time in the life of Jesus. Lots happening, lots of crowds, with expectations for Jesus about what he should do and what he shouldn't do with his time. And in the middle of all the craziness, we read about Jesus in Mark chapter 1 it says of him, “Very early in the morning…” How early? Well, it was still dark. And Jesus got up and he left the house and he went off to a solitary, to a quiet place where he prayed.
If Jesus needs this, like, if he's prioritizing this, if he's intentional with his mornings, then how much more should we be with ours? And so, it was just really clear to me that, okay, like, this is Biblically emphasized, this idea of connecting with God in the mornings, of meeting God in the morning, of taking my thoughts captive when I first wake up.

And then I started to wonder if maybe science backed this up. In other words, if this is true in Scripture, maybe it's true biologically. Like, maybe this is how we're made neurologically, that God has wired us in such a way that our brains are especially moldable in the mornings. And turns out they are. When you wake up, your brain moves from delta waves to theta waves to alpha waves. And in that time, important things are happening that determine whether you respond or you react to whatever happens to you throughout the day.

Dr. Andrew Huberman, in his research for Stanford University, he uses some language I find really helpful. He calls the morning hours your neuroplasticity window. That you've got a couple hours in the morning that are your neuroplasticity window, because in those few hours your thinking disproportionately shapes your brain. It's your neuroplasticity window: the first hour or two of your day. What you think about has disproportionate weight. It has compounding effect on what you think about the rest of the day.

Dr. Sonia Lupine and her research on cortisol patterns talks about how our stress hormone levels are naturally highest in the morning. It's called the cortisol awakening response. And the idea here is that our morning thoughts have amplified emotional impact through the rest of the day. Like, our morning thoughts set us up for either having a resiliency throughout the rest of the day or having these negative thought patterns for the rest of the day.

Psychology would call this a primacy effect. Like, your first thoughts about something, first thoughts about a person, or your first thoughts about the day disproportionately influence everything else that follows. So, your thoughts early in the morning create neural pathways that are used to process whatever else happens to you throughout the course of the day.

Psychologists also refer to the morning hours as a time of priming. Like, if you ever put a coat of primer on a wall before painting it, you can't see the primer, but it's underneath what you can see. And if you've ever done much painting and you've tried to skip the primer, you know it's a bad idea. Like, you pay attention to what's underneath what you can see. Even though you can't see it, even though people can't see how you're spending your morning hours, what they can see is impacted by what they can't see.

Think of it like this. Imagine that somebody gives you a gift as kind of an old school radio that has a tuner on it that you tune into different radio stations. But the way this radio works is whatever you turn into…tune into before 7 a.m. is what it stays on the rest of the day. So, whatever station you tune into first is what you got to listen to all day long. And you better be like, you could tune into some country music and maybe that's nice to start your day, but around 5 o' clock in the evening you're like, Why didn't I choose differently? Whatever you start the day with is what you have to listen to all day. And in a sense, this is the way our brains work, that whatever you tune into to begin your day is what you listen to throughout the rest of your day.

So, play this out with me. You wake up, you immediately grab your phone, there's a news alert, another tragedy. A political post makes you all angsty to start your day. A couple of messages from work marked ‘urgent’ that you miss during the night. You've not even gotten out of bed yet and you're already dealing with anxiety and anger and feeling overwhelmed.

But what really…the cost of this is what happens the rest of the day. Because it's not just in that moment, but now you're setting yourself up where small inconveniences, you're reactive to them. They feel like a crisis. Traffic makes you furious. Your coworker's innocent attack or comment feels like an attack. And you're reactive; it's because you've primed your brain for chaos at 6:47 in the morning.

Or maybe instead of checking the news, you get on your phone and the first thing you do before you even get out of bed, you look at Instagram and your friends posted their stupid perfect vacation pictures. And you look at the perfect date that somebody else went on the night before. And that fitness influencer you follow has been up for like, four hours already. And like, before you've even had your coffee, you're feeling inadequate and insecure. And so, what that does for the rest of the day is it primes it. Like, now you're measuring yourself against others. Your accomplishments feel small, your appearance is lacking, and you spend the day feeling less than because that's what you primed your mind for. That's how you set the trajectory of your thinking to begin your day.

But you think of the flip side of that. Like, what if you take your thoughts captive and you wake up and before you even reach for the phone, you say, Okay, God, before I get out of this bed, I'm going to think of three things today that I have to be grateful for. And you say it out loud. And maybe the first thing is, I woke up. Maybe that's what you go with: I woke up. I'm thankful that I woke up today.

And you pick a couple of other things and you say it out loud and what happens? Well, the rest of the day you've primed yourself for some gratitude. And you can notice things that maybe you would have missed otherwise. And this time when the traffic is heavy, you find something to be grateful for. The podcasts that you're listening to or work is stressful and you notice a coworker who's there for you that maybe you would have missed otherwise.

And you respond instead of react because you primed your brain to see some blessings. This is what it looks like to take your thoughts captive is you recognize in the morning what you see…what you look for is what you're going to see the rest of the day. The station you tune into is what you're going to listen to the rest of the day.
I want you to take a look at a parable that I call the ‘Parable of the Smudge.’

Animated video begins to play.

Kristen had always dreamed of visiting the picturesque coastal town of Seaview. She'd seen countless photos online of its stunning cliffs, pristine beaches, and vibrant sunsets. Finally, after years of saving, she booked a week-long stay at a highly rated Airbnb perched on the cliffs overlooking the ocean.

As soon as she arrived, Kristen rushed to the large picture window that dominated the living room wall. This was the view everyone raved about in the reviews. But as she approached, her excitement quickly turned to disappointment. There, right in the center of the window, was a small but noticeable smudge. She spent the next hour trying to clean it off, but it seemed to be in between the window panes, impossible to reach.

For the rest of her stay, Kristen found herself fixated on that smudge. When she looked out the window, instead of seeing the vast expanse of the sparkling ocean, the rugged beauty of the cliffs, or the glorious colors of the sunset, all she could focus on was that small, blurry spot. Her photos all seemed to showcase the smudge rather than the view. And the more she saw it, the more she saw it.
She finally shut the curtains so she wouldn't have to see the smudge anymore. She spent most of her vacation indoors feeling cheated and frustrated. She barely noticed the sound of the waves or the fresh sea breeze when she briefly ventured out.

On the last day of her stay, Kristen left a scathing review, “I don't understand why everyone raves about the view of this place. All I could see was a dirty window.” As Kristen got in her car to leave, the young couple was just arriving to check into the Airbnb.

The woman gasped with excitement as she got out of the car. Pointing at the view in awe, she said, “Look at that sunset. It's even more beautiful than in the pictures.” Kristin glanced into her rearview mirror as she was driving away, hoping to catch a glimpse of a spectacular golden sun sinking into a violet and pink sky. But she couldn't help but notice, right there on her rearview mirror was a smudge.

Video ends.

The more you see it, the more you see it. Some of you are just smudge people. Like, you do this really well. It doesn't matter how beautiful the view is out that window, you're going to find a smudge and you're going to notice it. And so, the Bible would teach us that we have more control over this than maybe we realize. That if we will take our thoughts captive, if we'll look for the beautiful, we'll see the beautiful. If we look for the good, we'll see the good. If we look for the praise worthy, we'll see the praiseworthy. And so, how you start off each day will largely determine what you see during the day.

I want us to spend a few minutes just looking at an example of this from the Old Testament. A prophet by the name of Jeremiah is having the worst morning of his life, kind of the worst morning in his nation's history. Jerusalem had been destroyed. People were starving. And he walks the street of the once beautiful city, and his heart breaks.
He sees his people, but really, he sees God's people, the Israelites rummaging through trash, looking for food. And it's not the way it should be. Like, these are God's people. Why wouldn't God take care of them? Why wouldn't God protect them? And he smells the stench of death, and he just…he breaks down and the tears come and he starts weeping.

As he cries, he hikes up to this cave that overlooks Jerusalem and he wants to pray, but he doesn't know how. And we have written for us the book of Lamentations as he processes his thoughts. ‘Lament’ means to express grief or sorrow in a passionate or intense way, to weep or to wail.

It's interesting the way the book is laid out. It's laid out as a bit of poetry. You have chapters…it's five chapters in Lamentations, chapters one and two and chapters four and five all have a similar rhythm to them, where he takes the alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, and each verse starts with the corresponding letter of the alphabet, 22 letters. And he just goes through in chapter one, here's all the things I have to lament about, alphabet.
All the things I have to lament about chapter two, and then the same thing in chapter four and five. It would be like us wanting to kind of make our complaints known to God.

And so, we’re like, where do I even start? I've got so many of them. How about A? And A is for anxiety, and B is for bullying, and C is for cancer, and D is for divorce, and E is for eating disorders, and F is for financial difficulties, and we just work our way down. And chapter two, I can do another round of this. And A…and we just go…we just go through it.
That's how Lamentations is written. But sandwiched between chapters one and two and four and five is chapter three.

And chapter three gives praise and thanks to God. And so, the whole book is written as a bit of an illustration of what it looks like for us as believers to lament. And the book is, of course, bookended with sorrow and grief and frustration and confusion and disappointment. But it's sandwiched around: Be joyful always, give thanks in all circumstances, pray continually.

And so, there's an important principle in lamenting. So, when we find ourselves overwhelmed by the reality that life is difficult, one of the important principles for us as followers of Jesus is to start, but don't stay. This is where you start being very honest with God about your fears and your frustrations, about anger and bitterness, about the hurt that you're carrying.

Like, you don't pretend that everything's fine when everything isn't fine. You start there, but you don't stay there. David models this beautifully throughout the Psalms, where he is uncomfortably honest with God about how he feels around some of the circumstances he's dealing with. He starts there, but he doesn't stay there.

A term for this would be…in neuroscience would be cognitive reprisal. It's a reframing where you recognize the reality of your emotion or what you're going through, but with the intent of letting it draw you closer to God. When you're in a season of lament, it'll drive you further away, or it can drive you closer to God. You start there, but you don't stay there. You, with God's help, you ask him to show you a different way of looking at things. You get a different perspective.

And so, you begin with some honest questions. But you're not just rehearsing your lament, you're releasing it to God. You're not just focusing on your problems, but you're focusing on his promises. And so that's what Jeremiah does. He sits in a cave, looks down at the ruins, and in the middle of these really dark circumstances, he here's what he does. Listen, he makes a choice about what he's going to think about.

That's what we read in verse 21 of chapter 3. He said, “Yet this I call to mind...” Despite all these A-to-Z things that aren't going my way, this is what I'm going to call to mind, and therefore, I have hope, because I'm going to be intentional with my thinking. I'm going to find some hope. And so, when you're lamenting, you have to be intentional about what you're going to call to mind. And that's what Jeremiah does.

And we see three things that he calls to mind. First, God's compassions never fail. Verse 22-23, “Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning.” That every morning God will show you his compassion and his mercy. You have to look for it sometimes, pray that he'll show it to you, give you eyes to see it.

The word ‘new’ here is like new of a different kind. It's not like saying, Well, we had eggs for breakfast today, we're having new eggs for breakfast tomorrow. It's like we had eggs for breakfast today, and tomorrow we're having waffles. It's like it's new of a different kind. And the idea here is that each day God will show you some way in which he is redeeming, restoring, rebuilding—a way that he's working. But you need him to help you see it.

And so, you say, God, it makes no sense to me. I don't understand what's happened or why it's happening. I don't sit where you sit. So, tomorrow morning when I wake up, would you help me see that you're compassion and you're merciful, compassionate and merciful? Would you let me see that your mercies are going to be new tomorrow? That there's going to be a new way that light shines into the darkness that I can't see from where I sit today, but tomorrow I'll be able to see it, that each day his mercies are new, each day his compassions are new.
As you go through the lament, you just remind yourself that each morning his mercies are new, his compassion is new. The word ‘compassion’ here carries with it this idea of tenderness. Verse 32, “If he works severely, he also works tenderly.” It's not always the way we think about God. But Jeremiah understood in that moment the tenderness of God. His mercies are new each morning.

Secondly, Jeremiah tells himself, here's something I'm going to call to my mind that great is His faithfulness. I'm going to speak that out loud. I'm going to take the thoughts I have captive, and I'm going to replace it with this thought that God is faithful. Lamentations 3:23, “Great is his faithfulness even when you can't see it or feel it, even when you don't understand how the situation is unfolding.” The sovereignty of God is at work. He is always faithful. He won't let you down.

Third thing he says is, I'm going to call to my mind, the Lord is my portion, the Lord is enough for me. Verse 24, “I say to myself, The Lord is my portion, therefore I will wait for him.’” I'm not going to put my confidence in anything else; I'm going to put my confidence in him. And so, when life is difficult, what do you say to yourself? Jeremiah says here are the three things I say to myself. Here are the three thoughts that I am constantly thinking. God's compassions never fail. Great is his faithfulness, and he's sufficient for me.

So, can I just challenge you starting tomorrow to have a little bit of a morning routine? Now, look, don't be getting this thought in your mind that it has to be an hour long. Maybe you do that. Good for you. But the duration is not nearly as important as the consistency. So, what if you just for 10 minutes in the morning say, Okay, I'm going to be intentional to think through some of these things. Consistency is more important than the duration.

And I would just tell you a couple things, just if I could challenge you with. Number one, do not check your phone. Don't check your phone in the mornings. The research is just really clear on this, that when you get on your phone, as soon as you wake up, you skip the theta and alpha and you jump straight to the beta phase, which means you're awake and alert, but you're now already in a reactive response. In other words, it's triggering a stress response in you.

And so, unless you want to start your day off primed for distraction and stress, don't do it. Like, maybe you do. Like, maybe that's what you want. You want people to look at you and say, You know what I like about him? Always distracted. It's my favorite thing. Never quite paying attention, and he's always a little stressed out. Like, if that's what you're going for, do it. Then just get on your phone as soon as you wake up. It's a good way to do that. But otherwise, just don't do it.

Stay off your phone for that neuroplasticity window, and then just develop a morning routine. Look, use Jeremiah as an example of this. It can be different. But what's he do? He starts with lament. He starts there, but he doesn't stay there. But he does start with it. David does this in the Psalms again, where he says, Hey, here's some heavy things. Here's some challenges I've got to deal with today. Here's some people who are against me. Here's some circumstances I wish I could change.

But then he turns the corner and reframes those things, which is take number two, taking your thoughts captive, where you say, this is all true God. But here's what I'm going to call to mind. “Yet this I call to mind.” And then you declared those three truths over your life. God's compassions never fail. They're new every morning. Great is his faithfulness: I can count on God today. The Lord is my portion. He's enough for me.

And then you pray and you read some Scripture. You spend a few minutes in prayer. Spend a few minutes in God's Word before engaging in the demands of your day. Because life is difficult.

I would love to say that it's going to get easier, but there will be more to lament. Pain and suffering will continue to show up uninvited. Economic uncertainties will come. Family dynamics are fragile. Everything may be okay today, but tomorrow it might be different.

Lamenting will be a part of your story, and my story, too. But we are chapter three people. We are chapter three people, that in the midst of it, we praise the Lord. In the midst of it, we remind ourselves of God's faithfulness and his compassion and sufficiency.

Music begins to play softly.

When Charlie Kirk's wife, Erika, stood and she made her first public comments after her husband was murdered, she whispered, if you heard her comments, she whispered a short prayer that the microphone picked up right before she began. This young widow and mother of two whispered, “Jesus, fill this room,” before she spoke.

And so, in her moment of greatest darkness, when she could have said anything, when she could have cursed the darkness, no one would blame her. She said, “Jesus, fill this room.” She could have invited bitterness into the room. She could have allowed fear to fill the room. She could have whispered, Revenge, fill this room. But this young mom, in her deepest grief, invited the presence of Jesus.

As you begin your day, can I just challenge you to whisper those same words? Jesus, fill this room. Life is difficult. Darkness is real. Grief is heavy. Jesus, fill this room. Let's pray.

God, we don't want that prayer to just be this, like, metaphorical prayer. Like, would You fill this room right now? Jesus, would You fill this room? Jesus, would You fill this room with Your presence? Jesus, would You fill this room with Your peace? And would You fill this room with Your power?

Jesus, we ask that You would fill this room. Would You fill it with Your hope? Would You fill it with your grace? Would You fill it with your mercy? Would You fill this room with Your compassion? Jesus, please fill this room. Would You fill it with forgiveness? Would You fill it with Your tenderness? Would You fill it with second chances? Jesus, fill this room.

God, I pray that You would fill this room so that there's not any space left for fear, bitterness, revenge, no more space left for shame and guilt. That Your presence would so fill this room, that all of that just has to leave. So, Jesus, would You fill this room? We love you. It's in Jesus name, Amen.
Life is difficult. Life is difficult. In fact, the Bible tells us that life is difficult. If anybody ever tries to preach a message that doesn't include the fact that life is difficult, then they're not preaching the message of Scripture. Jesus said in John 16, “In this world, you will have trouble.” (NIV) Now he goes on to say, “I have overcome the world.” So, there's hope, there's strength. Like, we have confidence in who Jesus is, but in this world, you'll have trouble.

And that word for trouble is the word ‘tribulation,’ meaning that these are not small challenges. These aren't light difficulties. These are things that are significant. This is a darkness that is so deep, it can feel like it's consuming all the light. That's the word here for trouble. It is a young Ukrainian girl stabbed to death on a train in Charlotte. It's the shooting of a Catholic school…in a Catholic school in Minneapolis. It's a 31-year-old husband and father being assassinated while speaking at a university in Utah.

And so, what it can feel like is that every morning we wake up and we don't know what the headlines are going to be, but we know that darkness is waiting. And what that means is that we end up carrying some sadness and some grief with us that can at times just feel like it's sitting really heavy on our chest. What that means is that sometimes we have to fight back anger and certainly confusion. Things just don't make sense; things don't unfold the way we think they should or that would make sense to us if we were sitting in God's seat— which we're not.

And so, we pray, we pray for the church. The church is called to be a light in the darkness. And the way we see it, church, is that the darker it is, the brighter the light shines, Ephesians says. And so, we pray, Jesus, let us be a light. Somehow, let us do what you tell us to do of loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us.

And so, it's a time to pray. It's a time to reflect on our own lives. I often say at a funeral that this is a time when we gently close the eyes of the dead, but we open the eyes of the living.

The Bible says in Psalm 90, verse 12, “Teach us, God, to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” God, teach us to live with an awareness that our days are numbered so that we live with an intentionality about our lives. That we don't just go by day to day, week to week, month to month, without really thinking about our lives, but teach us to number our days.

James 4:14 says, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a while and then disappears.” And we need to be reminded of the temporariness of this life, that from our perspective, the years run together, but compared to eternity, none of us are here very long. And that's not meant to scare us. The Scriptures aren't meant to scare us, but they're meant to wake us up. They're meant to help us pay attention to our one and only lives and understand that moments like these matter…that matter.

And we need to look up long enough to recognize that. That one day we'll stand before God, and on that day, it won't matter what anybody else thought of you. It won't matter what your boss thought about you or your critics said about you. It won't matter how many followers you had or what your bank account looked like or what car you drove or house you lived in. It won't matter who won the last election. It won't matter what grade you got on the exam this past week. Like, what will matter is your relationship with Jesus.

And so, this is a good time to just pause and ask a question: If this is your last day, are you ready? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus? Have you confessed that you're a sinner who needs a Savior? Have you believed that Jesus died on the cross for your sins? That he rose again so that you could have eternal life? Is that where you have put your hope? Is that where you find your confidence? Jesus defeated death so you can live. That's the platform.

And so, we pray and we reflect on our lives, but we also, if we're honest—and I think we should be—we find ourselves in moments like these and weeks like these, asking questions that have perhaps always been there below the surface. But when certain headlines hit the news, those questions get louder. Like, how do we make sense of such evil? And how do we respond when violence becomes the answer to disagreement? How do we find hope when darkness seems overwhelming? Like, how do we even…how do we even do that?

And so, I want to talk to you about some of those questions, because this is true. And this isn't just true globally, like, this is true personally. It's not just the darkness in the headlines; it's like the darkness in our hearts and darkness in our homes. And it's the darkness when we're in these quiet moments alone with our thoughts. Life is difficult. That is actually the first line of the book called The Road Less Traveled, which according to the Guinness Book of World Records, holds the record for the longest time on the New York Times bestseller list. The Road Less Travel at six…last time I checked, 694 weeks. Bestseller for 13 years. Starts off, “Life is difficult.”
But in the midst of the difficult circumstances that we have no control over, in the midst of the darkness that can seem overwhelming, in the midst of grief and fear, the Bible tells us God's will is for you to live with joy and gratitude. How do you do that? Like, I know that's what you want. I want that. But it's not just what you want, it's what God wants for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 say, “Rejoice always.” Some translations: “Be joyful always and pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will.” You wonder what God's will is for your life, and you lay awake at night and say, God, what do you want from me? What's your will for me? This is…this is my will for you, God says, is that you be joyful, that you pray continually. You give thanks in all circumstance. And there's always and continually, in all circumstances, not just some of the time, not just when things are going well and everything's unfolding the way we hoped that it would, and things just make sense for us.

All of life is up and to the right. Like, no, it's always, all the time, in all circumstances. And so, how do we do that? How do we live with that kind of joy when life is difficult and we're hit with wave after wave of difficulties and everywhere we look we're reminded of how hard things can be? How do you find that kind of peace when maybe you're carrying a lot of shame and regret and you don't know what to do about it, but it feels…it just feels like too much. You just can't go back and do things differently. You wish you could, but you can't. And now it's like every day you're just reminded of the reality of your decisions, what it's done to you, the people around you, and it just all feels like too much.

How do you find victory over temptation, where it just seems to get the better of you? Like, you don't want to keep doing what you've been doing, but you keep doing it? How do you find victory? How do you intentionally fill your mind with thoughts that are true and God honoring? How do you overcome the voices in your head that tell you, Hey, it's too late and things are too dark and evil is winning?

So, the answer, I believe, is connected to the series we're in called ‘Every Thought Captive,’ where the Bible would teach us that either you take your thoughts captive or they're taking you captive. That the way we tear down these strongholds in our life is by being renewed in our minds, that we partner with the Holy Spirit in experiencing this mind transformation. We align our thoughts with what God says. And as we do, he gives us a new way of looking at things. He gives us a new way of thinking. He transforms our minds, and as he transforms our minds, our lives change.
And so, what I want to do is focus this in a little bit as we go in this series and talk to you about taking your thoughts captive at a certain time of the day, specifically taking your thoughts captive first thing in the morning. Now, listen, I know some of you are not morning people. I get it. Some of you don't…you don't even…you don't even believe in God till after lunch. (Laughter) That's sort of how you feel about it. Like, you wouldn't say that out loud, but the people around you might…like, are you a Christian yet? Okay, I'll give you another hour, and we'll see if it kicks in after you have the coffee. Because you're just not a…you're just not a morning person.

So, I'm going to talk to you about the importance of taking your thoughts captive in the morning. But I want you to hear me. I'm not putting, like, a time on what the morning is for you. It's just whenever you wake up. All right, so that might be five something. That might be ten something. If it's eleven something, I mean…okay, but really, what we're saying is what you think about when you first wake up has a way of determining what you think about through the rest of the day. Like, your thoughts early in the morning have impact on who you are.

I don't remember where I first heard the phrase, “win the morning.” I think I heard it from…I know I heard it from my junior high soccer coach. He may have been the first person. He would…he just took all of it too seriously. I don't know if you ever had a coach like this, like, in junior high, where you're like, this is not professional soccer. (Laughter) That's not what…that’s not what we're doing here. But he…he coached as if it were.

And he insisted we have our practices before school instead of after. And we'd show up half awake, and he would blow his whistle and yell at us with this annoying William Wallace like energy and say, “Win the morning. Win the morning, boys, and you win the day.” Have a sprint back and forth. And look, we were tolerating the morning, I feel like.

And I thought we should have gotten credit for that. Like, we were there tolerating the morning, but he wanted us to win the morning. And I…my question was always, Why can't we win the afternoon? (Laughter) I'm all for winning. Does it really matter when we win? And my coach would say, “Yeah, it does.” You got to win the morning if you want to win the day.

And I think there's a lot of wisdom in that. And what I discovered is that there's a reflection of this in Scripture. Like, the Bible would teach and would prioritize I believe how we spend our morning hours, our time with God in the morning. I did just a quick survey of Scripture on this. Abraham, Genesis, chapter 22:3 and 5, rose early in the morning to split wood for burnt offerings and to worship God. Moses, Exodus 24, Exodus 34 rose early in the morning to worship God, to meet with God. Gideon rose early in the morning to find the lord's favor, Judges 6, Judges 7. Proverbs 31 describes a godly woman as one who rises early and with intentionality.

Hezekiah worshiped God first thing in the morning, 2 Chronicles 29. Job made it his habit to rise early in the morning and to pray for his children. Isaiah spoke about waking up and meeting with God in the mornings, Isaiah, chapter 50, verse 4. You read through the Psalms, and David uses this as almost a refrain. This ‘in the morning.’ Let's look at a few of these together.

Psalm 5:3, “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice. In the morning, I lay my request before you.” And then here's what happens. Because he starts his day this way, then throughout the day, what's he do? He waits expectantly. Because he starts his day by praying and laying his request before God, it changes the way that he lives out the rest of his day. Throughout the day, he's living with this anticipation of how God's going to show up because of how he started his day.

Psalm 143:8, “In the morning God, bring me word of your unfailing love, for I put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.” God in the morning just give me direction. Help me know the path I should take. Psalm 59:16, “But I will sing of your strength in the morning. In the morning, I will sing of your love, for you are my fortress and my refuge in times of trouble.” Psalm 88:13, “But I cry to you for help, Lord. In the morning, my prayer comes before you.”

In the morning, in the morning, in the morning…in the morning I worship. In the morning, I seek your direction. In the morning, I'm reminded of your love for me. In the morning, I ask you for help. How you start your day, the thoughts you first think have a way of setting the direction for the rest of your day. And then ultimately your days become your life.

Jesus modeled this for us. In Mark chapter 1, it's this crazy busy time in the life of Jesus. Lots happening, lots of crowds, with expectations for Jesus about what he should do and what he shouldn't do with his time. And in the middle of all the craziness, we read about Jesus in Mark chapter 1 it says of him, “Very early in the morning…” How early? Well, it was still dark. And Jesus got up and he left the house and he went off to a solitary, to a quiet place where he prayed.
If Jesus needs this, like, if he's prioritizing this, if he's intentional with his mornings, then how much more should we be with ours? And so, it was just really clear to me that, okay, like, this is Biblically emphasized, this idea of connecting with God in the mornings, of meeting God in the morning, of taking my thoughts captive when I first wake up.

And then I started to wonder if maybe science backed this up. In other words, if this is true in Scripture, maybe it's true biologically. Like, maybe this is how we're made neurologically, that God has wired us in such a way that our brains are especially moldable in the mornings. And turns out they are. When you wake up, your brain moves from delta waves to theta waves to alpha waves. And in that time, important things are happening that determine whether you respond or you react to whatever happens to you throughout the day.

Dr. Andrew Huberman, in his research for Stanford University, he uses some language I find really helpful. He calls the morning hours your neuroplasticity window. That you've got a couple hours in the morning that are your neuroplasticity window, because in those few hours your thinking disproportionately shapes your brain. It's your neuroplasticity window: the first hour or two of your day. What you think about has disproportionate weight. It has compounding effect on what you think about the rest of the day.

Dr. Sonia Lupine and her research on cortisol patterns talks about how our stress hormone levels are naturally highest in the morning. It's called the cortisol awakening response. And the idea here is that our morning thoughts have amplified emotional impact through the rest of the day. Like, our morning thoughts set us up for either having a resiliency throughout the rest of the day or having these negative thought patterns for the rest of the day.

Psychology would call this a primacy effect. Like, your first thoughts about something, first thoughts about a person, or your first thoughts about the day disproportionately influence everything else that follows. So, your thoughts early in the morning create neural pathways that are used to process whatever else happens to you throughout the course of the day.

Psychologists also refer to the morning hours as a time of priming. Like, if you ever put a coat of primer on a wall before painting it, you can't see the primer, but it's underneath what you can see. And if you've ever done much painting and you've tried to skip the primer, you know it's a bad idea. Like, you pay attention to what's underneath what you can see. Even though you can't see it, even though people can't see how you're spending your morning hours, what they can see is impacted by what they can't see.

Think of it like this. Imagine that somebody gives you a gift as kind of an old school radio that has a tuner on it that you tune into different radio stations. But the way this radio works is whatever you turn into…tune into before 7 a.m. is what it stays on the rest of the day. So, whatever station you tune into first is what you got to listen to all day long. And you better be like, you could tune into some country music and maybe that's nice to start your day, but around 5 o' clock in the evening you're like, Why didn't I choose differently? Whatever you start the day with is what you have to listen to all day. And in a sense, this is the way our brains work, that whatever you tune into to begin your day is what you listen to throughout the rest of your day.

So, play this out with me. You wake up, you immediately grab your phone, there's a news alert, another tragedy. A political post makes you all angsty to start your day. A couple of messages from work marked ‘urgent’ that you miss during the night. You've not even gotten out of bed yet and you're already dealing with anxiety and anger and feeling overwhelmed.

But what really…the cost of this is what happens the rest of the day. Because it's not just in that moment, but now you're setting yourself up where small inconveniences, you're reactive to them. They feel like a crisis. Traffic makes you furious. Your coworker's innocent attack or comment feels like an attack. And you're reactive; it's because you've primed your brain for chaos at 6:47 in the morning.

Or maybe instead of checking the news, you get on your phone and the first thing you do before you even get out of bed, you look at Instagram and your friends posted their stupid perfect vacation pictures. And you look at the perfect date that somebody else went on the night before. And that fitness influencer you follow has been up for like, four hours already. And like, before you've even had your coffee, you're feeling inadequate and insecure. And so, what that does for the rest of the day is it primes it. Like, now you're measuring yourself against others. Your accomplishments feel small, your appearance is lacking, and you spend the day feeling less than because that's what you primed your mind for. That's how you set the trajectory of your thinking to begin your day.

But you think of the flip side of that. Like, what if you take your thoughts captive and you wake up and before you even reach for the phone, you say, Okay, God, before I get out of this bed, I'm going to think of three things today that I have to be grateful for. And you say it out loud. And maybe the first thing is, I woke up. Maybe that's what you go with: I woke up. I'm thankful that I woke up today.

And you pick a couple of other things and you say it out loud and what happens? Well, the rest of the day you've primed yourself for some gratitude. And you can notice things that maybe you would have missed otherwise. And this time when the traffic is heavy, you find something to be grateful for. The podcasts that you're listening to or work is stressful and you notice a coworker who's there for you that maybe you would have missed otherwise.

And you respond instead of react because you primed your brain to see some blessings. This is what it looks like to take your thoughts captive is you recognize in the morning what you see…what you look for is what you're going to see the rest of the day. The station you tune into is what you're going to listen to the rest of the day.
I want you to take a look at a parable that I call the ‘Parable of the Smudge.’

Animated video begins to play.

Kristen had always dreamed of visiting the picturesque coastal town of Seaview. She'd seen countless photos online of its stunning cliffs, pristine beaches, and vibrant sunsets. Finally, after years of saving, she booked a week-long stay at a highly rated Airbnb perched on the cliffs overlooking the ocean.

As soon as she arrived, Kristen rushed to the large picture window that dominated the living room wall. This was the view everyone raved about in the reviews. But as she approached, her excitement quickly turned to disappointment. There, right in the center of the window, was a small but noticeable smudge. She spent the next hour trying to clean it off, but it seemed to be in between the window panes, impossible to reach.

For the rest of her stay, Kristen found herself fixated on that smudge. When she looked out the window, instead of seeing the vast expanse of the sparkling ocean, the rugged beauty of the cliffs, or the glorious colors of the sunset, all she could focus on was that small, blurry spot. Her photos all seemed to showcase the smudge rather than the view. And the more she saw it, the more she saw it.
She finally shut the curtains so she wouldn't have to see the smudge anymore. She spent most of her vacation indoors feeling cheated and frustrated. She barely noticed the sound of the waves or the fresh sea breeze when she briefly ventured out.

On the last day of her stay, Kristen left a scathing review, “I don't understand why everyone raves about the view of this place. All I could see was a dirty window.” As Kristen got in her car to leave, the young couple was just arriving to check into the Airbnb.

The woman gasped with excitement as she got out of the car. Pointing at the view in awe, she said, “Look at that sunset. It's even more beautiful than in the pictures.” Kristin glanced into her rearview mirror as she was driving away, hoping to catch a glimpse of a spectacular golden sun sinking into a violet and pink sky. But she couldn't help but notice, right there on her rearview mirror was a smudge.

Video ends.

The more you see it, the more you see it. Some of you are just smudge people. Like, you do this really well. It doesn't matter how beautiful the view is out that window, you're going to find a smudge and you're going to notice it. And so, the Bible would teach us that we have more control over this than maybe we realize. That if we will take our thoughts captive, if we'll look for the beautiful, we'll see the beautiful. If we look for the good, we'll see the good. If we look for the praise worthy, we'll see the praiseworthy. And so, how you start off each day will largely determine what you see during the day.

I want us to spend a few minutes just looking at an example of this from the Old Testament. A prophet by the name of Jeremiah is having the worst morning of his life, kind of the worst morning in his nation's history. Jerusalem had been destroyed. People were starving. And he walks the street of the once beautiful city, and his heart breaks.
He sees his people, but really, he sees God's people, the Israelites rummaging through trash, looking for food. And it's not the way it should be. Like, these are God's people. Why wouldn't God take care of them? Why wouldn't God protect them? And he smells the stench of death, and he just…he breaks down and the tears come and he starts weeping.

As he cries, he hikes up to this cave that overlooks Jerusalem and he wants to pray, but he doesn't know how. And we have written for us the book of Lamentations as he processes his thoughts. ‘Lament’ means to express grief or sorrow in a passionate or intense way, to weep or to wail.

It's interesting the way the book is laid out. It's laid out as a bit of poetry. You have chapters…it's five chapters in Lamentations, chapters one and two and chapters four and five all have a similar rhythm to them, where he takes the alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, and each verse starts with the corresponding letter of the alphabet, 22 letters. And he just goes through in chapter one, here's all the things I have to lament about, alphabet.
All the things I have to lament about chapter two, and then the same thing in chapter four and five. It would be like us wanting to kind of make our complaints known to God.

And so, we’re like, where do I even start? I've got so many of them. How about A? And A is for anxiety, and B is for bullying, and C is for cancer, and D is for divorce, and E is for eating disorders, and F is for financial difficulties, and we just work our way down. And chapter two, I can do another round of this. And A…and we just go…we just go through it.
That's how Lamentations is written. But sandwiched between chapters one and two and four and five is chapter three.

And chapter three gives praise and thanks to God. And so, the whole book is written as a bit of an illustration of what it looks like for us as believers to lament. And the book is, of course, bookended with sorrow and grief and frustration and confusion and disappointment. But it's sandwiched around: Be joyful always, give thanks in all circumstances, pray continually.

And so, there's an important principle in lamenting. So, when we find ourselves overwhelmed by the reality that life is difficult, one of the important principles for us as followers of Jesus is to start, but don't stay. This is where you start being very honest with God about your fears and your frustrations, about anger and bitterness, about the hurt that you're carrying.

Like, you don't pretend that everything's fine when everything isn't fine. You start there, but you don't stay there. David models this beautifully throughout the Psalms, where he is uncomfortably honest with God about how he feels around some of the circumstances he's dealing with. He starts there, but he doesn't stay there.

A term for this would be…in neuroscience would be cognitive reprisal. It's a reframing where you recognize the reality of your emotion or what you're going through, but with the intent of letting it draw you closer to God. When you're in a season of lament, it'll drive you further away, or it can drive you closer to God. You start there, but you don't stay there. You, with God's help, you ask him to show you a different way of looking at things. You get a different perspective.

And so, you begin with some honest questions. But you're not just rehearsing your lament, you're releasing it to God. You're not just focusing on your problems, but you're focusing on his promises. And so that's what Jeremiah does. He sits in a cave, looks down at the ruins, and in the middle of these really dark circumstances, he here's what he does. Listen, he makes a choice about what he's going to think about.

That's what we read in verse 21 of chapter 3. He said, “Yet this I call to mind...” Despite all these A-to-Z things that aren't going my way, this is what I'm going to call to mind, and therefore, I have hope, because I'm going to be intentional with my thinking. I'm going to find some hope. And so, when you're lamenting, you have to be intentional about what you're going to call to mind. And that's what Jeremiah does.

And we see three things that he calls to mind. First, God's compassions never fail. Verse 22-23, “Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning.” That every morning God will show you his compassion and his mercy. You have to look for it sometimes, pray that he'll show it to you, give you eyes to see it.

The word ‘new’ here is like new of a different kind. It's not like saying, Well, we had eggs for breakfast today, we're having new eggs for breakfast tomorrow. It's like we had eggs for breakfast today, and tomorrow we're having waffles. It's like it's new of a different kind. And the idea here is that each day God will show you some way in which he is redeeming, restoring, rebuilding—a way that he's working. But you need him to help you see it.

And so, you say, God, it makes no sense to me. I don't understand what's happened or why it's happening. I don't sit where you sit. So, tomorrow morning when I wake up, would you help me see that you're compassion and you're merciful, compassionate and merciful? Would you let me see that your mercies are going to be new tomorrow? That there's going to be a new way that light shines into the darkness that I can't see from where I sit today, but tomorrow I'll be able to see it, that each day his mercies are new, each day his compassions are new.
As you go through the lament, you just remind yourself that each morning his mercies are new, his compassion is new. The word ‘compassion’ here carries with it this idea of tenderness. Verse 32, “If he works severely, he also works tenderly.” It's not always the way we think about God. But Jeremiah understood in that moment the tenderness of God. His mercies are new each morning.

Secondly, Jeremiah tells himself, here's something I'm going to call to my mind that great is His faithfulness. I'm going to speak that out loud. I'm going to take the thoughts I have captive, and I'm going to replace it with this thought that God is faithful. Lamentations 3:23, “Great is his faithfulness even when you can't see it or feel it, even when you don't understand how the situation is unfolding.” The sovereignty of God is at work. He is always faithful. He won't let you down.

Third thing he says is, I'm going to call to my mind, the Lord is my portion, the Lord is enough for me. Verse 24, “I say to myself, The Lord is my portion, therefore I will wait for him.’” I'm not going to put my confidence in anything else; I'm going to put my confidence in him. And so, when life is difficult, what do you say to yourself? Jeremiah says here are the three things I say to myself. Here are the three thoughts that I am constantly thinking. God's compassions never fail. Great is his faithfulness, and he's sufficient for me.

So, can I just challenge you starting tomorrow to have a little bit of a morning routine? Now, look, don't be getting this thought in your mind that it has to be an hour long. Maybe you do that. Good for you. But the duration is not nearly as important as the consistency. So, what if you just for 10 minutes in the morning say, Okay, I'm going to be intentional to think through some of these things. Consistency is more important than the duration.

And I would just tell you a couple things, just if I could challenge you with. Number one, do not check your phone. Don't check your phone in the mornings. The research is just really clear on this, that when you get on your phone, as soon as you wake up, you skip the theta and alpha and you jump straight to the beta phase, which means you're awake and alert, but you're now already in a reactive response. In other words, it's triggering a stress response in you.

And so, unless you want to start your day off primed for distraction and stress, don't do it. Like, maybe you do. Like, maybe that's what you want. You want people to look at you and say, You know what I like about him? Always distracted. It's my favorite thing. Never quite paying attention, and he's always a little stressed out. Like, if that's what you're going for, do it. Then just get on your phone as soon as you wake up. It's a good way to do that. But otherwise, just don't do it.

Stay off your phone for that neuroplasticity window, and then just develop a morning routine. Look, use Jeremiah as an example of this. It can be different. But what's he do? He starts with lament. He starts there, but he doesn't stay there. But he does start with it. David does this in the Psalms again, where he says, Hey, here's some heavy things. Here's some challenges I've got to deal with today. Here's some people who are against me. Here's some circumstances I wish I could change.

But then he turns the corner and reframes those things, which is take number two, taking your thoughts captive, where you say, this is all true God. But here's what I'm going to call to mind. “Yet this I call to mind.” And then you declared those three truths over your life. God's compassions never fail. They're new every morning. Great is his faithfulness: I can count on God today. The Lord is my portion. He's enough for me.

And then you pray and you read some Scripture. You spend a few minutes in prayer. Spend a few minutes in God's Word before engaging in the demands of your day. Because life is difficult.

I would love to say that it's going to get easier, but there will be more to lament. Pain and suffering will continue to show up uninvited. Economic uncertainties will come. Family dynamics are fragile. Everything may be okay today, but tomorrow it might be different.

Lamenting will be a part of your story, and my story, too. But we are chapter three people. We are chapter three people, that in the midst of it, we praise the Lord. In the midst of it, we remind ourselves of God's faithfulness and his compassion and sufficiency.

Music begins to play softly.

When Charlie Kirk's wife, Erika, stood and she made her first public comments after her husband was murdered, she whispered, if you heard her comments, she whispered a short prayer that the microphone picked up right before she began. This young widow and mother of two whispered, “Jesus, fill this room,” before she spoke.

And so, in her moment of greatest darkness, when she could have said anything, when she could have cursed the darkness, no one would blame her. She said, “Jesus, fill this room.” She could have invited bitterness into the room. She could have allowed fear to fill the room. She could have whispered, Revenge, fill this room. But this young mom, in her deepest grief, invited the presence of Jesus.

As you begin your day, can I just challenge you to whisper those same words? Jesus, fill this room. Life is difficult. Darkness is real. Grief is heavy. Jesus, fill this room. Let's pray.

God, we don't want that prayer to just be this, like, metaphorical prayer. Like, would You fill this room right now? Jesus, would You fill this room? Jesus, would You fill this room with Your presence? Jesus, would You fill this room with Your peace? And would You fill this room with Your power?

Jesus, we ask that You would fill this room. Would You fill it with Your hope? Would You fill it with your grace? Would You fill it with your mercy? Would You fill this room with Your compassion? Jesus, please fill this room. Would You fill it with forgiveness? Would You fill it with Your tenderness? Would You fill it with second chances? Jesus, fill this room.

God, I pray that You would fill this room so that there's not any space left for fear, bitterness, revenge, no more space left for shame and guilt. That Your presence would so fill this room, that all of that just has to leave. So, Jesus, would You fill this room? We love you. It's in Jesus name, Amen.