The Most Important Part of Your Day

by Pastor Rick Warren

“Lord, every morning you hear my voice. Every morning, I tell you what I need, and I
wait for your answer.” Psalm 5:3

"'Without review, I lose my view.' Make sure you allocate part of your quiet time to review the
vision God wants you to have." Any doctor will tell you the most important meal of the day is
breakfast because the way you start your day influences the rest of your day. That’s true not just
physically, but spiritually.

That’s why the most important part of your day is your time alone with God. Setting aside time in
the morning to be alone with God will set the pattern of your attitude and response to every event
and person for the rest of your day.

Whether it takes five minutes or thirty, there are four things you need to do in this time alone with
God that will set your spiritual thermostat for the day.

1.Read God’s Word. You don’t have to read a lot, just enough until God speaks to
you. It’s amazing how God will use his Word in your life. As the prophet Isaiah
said, “The sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom” (Isaiah 50:4). I
can’t tell you how many times I’ve read something in my morning quiet time that
was exactly what I needed to share with someone later in the day.

1.Be quiet before God. Noise is one of the major sources of stress in peoples’ lives.
Your body needs a certain amount of quiet, and you need to carve out time in
your life for this quietness. You will be less stressed if you start your day with
quiet time before God.

“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength” (Isaiah
30:15 NIV). The worst thing you can do in the morning is get up and immediately check
your e-mail or turn on the news. You need time to meditate on God’s good news before
you fill your mind with bad news.

1.Talk with God. Notice it says “talk with God,” not “talk to God.” Prayer is a
conversation, not a one-way street. And it’s not the amount of words you say in
prayer that make it effective. It’s about sharing what’s on your heart with God –
your feelings, concerns, thoughts, and adoration. Just talk with God and then
wait on him to respond.

1.Review your day and goals with God. Take time to go over your schedule, your
goals and your day’s to-do list with God. There are dozens of verses in Proverbs
that talk about planning with God and teaching you to number your days, which
means looking at your time and pondering where you are going.

It’s easy to set goals, but if you don’t look at your goals every day, you will never
accomplish them. Or as I like to say, “Without review, I lose my view.” Make sure you
allocate part of your quiet time to review the vision God wants you to have.
Start the Day Remembering Who God Is

“When you pray, you should pray like this, ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name
…” Matthew 6:7-9

"So start your quiet time by reminding yourself of who God is and how much he loves you."

Yesterday I talked about the importance of a daily quiet time and the four components that should
go into it. The rest of this week I want to share with you a template for your quiet time based on
the Lord’s Prayer.

In Matthew 6 Jesus says, “When you pray, you should pray like this …” (v. 7 NCV). The Lord’s
Prayer is a model. It gives six principles for effective prayer and a daily time with God. We’ll cover
one a day for the rest of this week.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name ….” (Matthew 6:7 NCV) The first thing you should
do in your time alone with God is begin with a prayer of connection. Your quiet time needs to start
with focusing on God. You need to think about how much God loves you.

Don’t think about your problems or your goals or your sins. Think about who God is and what a
loving father he is. He is a compassionate, caring, close father who can handle anything. His love
for you isn’t based on what you do. He loves you no matter what and you will never lose that love.
Start your time by reminding yourself of this and just focus on him for a little while.

To start your day well, you need two things – the fullness of life and the power of God. Where you
do get those? They come from experiencing the love of God. So start your quiet time by reminding
yourself of who God is and how much he loves you. Then respond with an attitude of praise. Thank
God for loving you and thank him for his forgiveness. Take time to praise God.

Quiet Time Requires Surrender

“May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven …” Matthew
6:7-9

When Jesus told the disciples to pray, “May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as
it is in heaven” he was telling them to pray a prayer of surrender, to offer their lives to be used for
God’s purposes.

This is the second step to a fruitful quiet time, and it’s also the key to spiritual health. How? You’ll
find success in life when you stop trying to include God in your plans and instead ask God to
include you in his. Stop saying, “God, I’ve got these great plans, if you’ll just come over here and
bless them.” Success will come when you pray, “God, include me in your plans because I know
nothing you do flops.”

That’s the value of praying, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” You’re surrendering to God’s
plan. You’re saying, “God, I want to get with your agenda and offer my life to be used for your
purposes today. I offer you my hands, my head, my heart, my eyes – however you want to use me
– my mouth, my feet, my body.”
Personally, I am not about to start the day without doing the prayer of surrender. Once that’s done
I can face anything because I know I’m on God’s side. And when
I’m on God’s side, guess who is going to be my defender? Guess who’s going to stand up for me?

The Bible says it like this, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will
be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33 NIV).
Quiet Time Requires Trust

“Give us this day our daily bread.” Matthew 6:7-9

Offering a prayer of trust is the third thing to do in a quiet time. When you do this, your stress
level is going to go down because a prayer of trust is the single greatest antidote to worry.

Don’t be afraid to tell God that you’re expecting him to meet all your needs. I love it when my
children, and now my grandchildren, trust me. And God loves it when his children trust him.

We show our trust in God when we can say to him, “Lord, I have so many things on my plate. They
are impossible. I can’t do them all today so help me know what’s important and what’s not
important. Help me not to worry about not getting the unimportant things done. Help me focus on
what matters most. I need your strength today to do what I need to do today. I have some
financial, physical and emotional needs and I’m depending on you to help me today.”

Now Jesus didn’t say, “Give us this day our monthly bread” or “our weekly bread.” He said “daily
bread” because we need to learn to depend on God twenty-four hours at a time. He’s not going to
get you to a point where you completely trust him for the next year, so he’s going to teach you to
trust him one day at a time. He’s going to give you enough grace, power, and energy to get
through today.

Philippians 4:19 says it best, “You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his
generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pour from Jesus” (MSG).

Quiet Time Requires Forgiveness

“And forgive us our sins as we also forgive those who have sinned against us.” Matthew
6:7-9

You will not get very far in life unless you settle the relational issues that you’ve been holding on
to. That’s the focus of the fourth step in a quiet time – the prayer of forgiveness.  The prayer of
forgiveness says, “Forgive us our sins as we also forgive those who have sinned against us.”

We live in a broken world and none of us are perfect. In fact, we’re all selfish. I think more about
me than I think about you. You think more about you than you think about me. And so we hurt
each other, sometimes unintentionally and sometimes on purpose.

When I hurt you, that causes guilt. When you hurt me, I feel resentment. Those two things can be
resolved with forgiveness. The prayer of forgiveness is the only way to get rid of the emotional
garbage of guilt and resentment. You will never reach the goals you set in your life if you’re
carrying the extra baggage of guilt and resentment. They slow you down. God doesn’t want that for
you. He wants you to ask for forgiveness when you hurt others and offer forgiveness to those who
have hurt you so you can be freed to move forward.

Now let’s say you let go of the guilt, but hold on to the resentment; you accept God’s forgiveness
but you don’t forgive anybody else. You’ll still move forward at half the speed because you’re
carrying the baggage of resentment.

On the other hand, let’s say you let go of the resentment and forgive other people but you don’t
forgive yourself. Then you’ll still be carrying the baggage of guilt that will keep you from reaching
your goals. You have to let both of them go.

How do you do that? Every day you need to give your guilt and resentment to God because new
hurts come up every day. Then receive God’s forgiveness and release the resentment you’re
holding against those who have hurt you. As James 3:18 says, “Those who are peacemakers will
plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness” Every day you are either planting seeds of
conflict with the people in your life or seeds of peace. When you plant seeds of peace you reap a
harvest of goodness, which means you will reach your goals because God is going to bless your life.
Quiet Time Requires Protection

“Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Matthew 6:7-9

A lot of people start well with resolutions and changes in their life, but don’t finish well. The key to
sticking with any plan for improvement in your life is fitting a prayer of protection in to your quiet
time.

What this means is asking God for help in the areas of your life that you struggle with. For
example, if you’re in debt and you’ve set a goal to get out of debt, ask yourself, “Why did I get into
debt?” It could be you bought things you didn’t need with money you didn’t have. That’s
temptation.

Once you set a goal in life, Satan will start tempting you to do anything but reach that goal. Count
on it. So you need to say, “Lord, I need your help. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil.” That’s the prayer of protection.

Ask God for the strength to reach your goals. Ask him on a daily basis. Keep a list of the goals you
want to achieve, then pull out that list every day and say something like this, “Lord, there’s no way
I’m going to reach this goal unless you help me. I’m going to be tempted to give in, give up, take
the easy way out. I need you to help me overcome the temptation.”

Here are two verses to keep in mind:

“I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13 NIV). When Christ is
inside you, you will have the power to do anything.
“Remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others
experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you
can’t stand up against it When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not
give in to it” (1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT).

So if you say, “I’m a Christian, but I couldn’t help myself,” you’re lying because God says, “I will
make a way out.” You have no excuse. You weren’t looking for a solution; you just didn’t want a
way out.

But God promises that he will always make a way out for you. Ask him for that protection every
day.

Quiet Times Requires Victory

“For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever! Amen.” Matthew 6:7-9

All week we’ve been looking at steps to a successful quiet time based on the Lord’s Prayer. Today
it’s time for the last step – the prayer of victory. I love this step because I love to end my quiet
time with a positive. The Lord’s Prayer ends with this statement, “For yours is the kingdom and the
power and the glory forever! Amen.”

It’s important to end your quiet time by thanking God for the ultimate victory.  Take a moment to
tell him, “God, no matter what happens in my life today, I’m starting this day with you. I don’t
know what it’s going to bring, but no matter what good or bad happens, ultimately we win. No one
can take away my salvation.”

I love to think about the fact that one day there is going to be no more pain in my life. One day
there will be no more insecurity, or loneliness, or depression, or jealousy, or conflict, or sorrow in
the world. One day God is going to solve it all. One day we’re going to heaven and nobody can take
that away from us.

“I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to
him until the day of his return” (1 Timothy 1:12 NLT). God will keep me saved. That’s good news
and that’s how I end my quiet time.