Will prayers before dawn change your day? There’s no way of knowing what might or might not happen if you pray before everyone else gets up. The time of day is not critical to developing a prayer life, but it can certainly be instrumental.

While there’s nothing intrinsically spiritual about the morning, I do notice that when I wake up praying or when I pray first after rising, I begin my day with unusual focus, resolve, and humility. When I lift up a prayer before dawn, I begin as the best version of myself.

Psalm 55:17 lays out the template for when you should pray: “Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.” The emphasis for prayer here is not on morning prayers or mealtime prayers or bedtime prayers, although that’s when many of us remember to pray. The idea of praying morning, noon, and night is that I am praying continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

God hears us whenever we pray. But if you’re like me, remembering to pray gets harder as the day goes on. We have so many demands on our time and attention, it becomes difficult to sit in the holy moments and watch God work. It’s hard to even find the holy moments.

What’s special about prayer before dawn?

God’s presence happens when we invite it.

Of course, God is omniscient, so he never leaves us. He speaks to us regardless of where we are or what time it is. But something remarkable happens when we re-orient our souls to our Savior at the beginning of the day.

Preachers have often used Psalm 63:1 to argue for having your “quiet time” (prayer and Bible reading) in the morning because the verse says, “early will I seek thee.” However, this verse isn’t dictating what time of day you should pray; it’s establishing a priority principle of seeking God first. The word for early is sahar, which can mean “early” or “earnestly.” It doesn’t matter when you seek God; it matters that you do it earnestly, seriously, and intentionally.

Jesus reiterated the importance of prayer in Matthew 6:1-15. Nowhere does he dictate the time of day to pray, although he stresses the attitude of prayer and gives his disciples a template for prayer, which we know as “The Lord’s Prayer.”

Jesus demonstrated prayer’s importance by praying at all times of the day. But when he prayed alone, he often prayed before dawn. Jesus prioritized fueling his soul. “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35). And here’s the truly remarkable afterword. Whenever we read about Jesus praying alone with God the Father, the verses that follow contain miracles and spiritual warfare. Jesus leaves his prayer time charged up and ready to defeat the devil.

Concentrating on God first changes your priorities.

Whoever or whatever we think about first thing in the morning is often the most important concern to us that day. All of us prioritize our own concerns, our families, our friends, and our careers. But Scripture calls us to make God preeminent in our lives. The first of the Ten Commandments instructs Israel: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2). In fact, the first four commandments are all about putting God first – not as the number one task on a list of objectives, but as the master of the list:

• Don’t have any other gods (Exodus 20:2)
• Don’t make or worship graven images/idols (Exodus 20:3)
• Don’t misuse God’s name (Exodus 20:4)
• Keep God’s day holy (Exodus 20:5)

Paul explains Jesus’ preeminence like this: “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy” (Colossians 1:18).

Seeking God brings you blessing.

In Deuteronomy 11, God promises to bless his people if they obey his laws and curse his people if they disobey. God’s commands are to worship, particularly through prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and fellowship (Hebrews 10:24-25).

With the vast array of responsibilities and pressures, finding time for uninterrupted worship might seem hard. But Jesus said worship is an all-day response to being in a relationship with him (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) and a natural outpouring from a priority that begins with God (Matthew 6:32-33).

Hearing from God requires solitude.

It feels impossible to hear from the Lord when the noise of our culture surrounds us nearly every minute of the day. From social media to family, friends, and co-workers, we all struggle to separate God’s truth from the world’s truth.

Throughout Scripture, those who wanted to hear from God prioritized isolating themselves against their schedules and pressures to wait and listen for God to instruct, comfort, convict, and direct.

Moses sought God’s face alone on Mount Sinai many times. Jacob and Hagar both met God alone in the wilderness. David worshipped alone in the pasture, writing songs while he watched his father’s sheep. During a severe drought, Elijah spent years safely tucked away from Ahab, witnessing God’s daily miracles of provision. Jesus regularly rose before dawn to pray to his Father.

When the crowds mobbed him, and everyone needed his touch, Jesus still set aside time to communicate with his Father. “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16). He found the time and place to be alone with God. In my life, that usually happens in the early morning.

Topic: To Win The Lost

1. Oct.01-R4A

Wednesday

2. Oct.02-R4B

Thursday

3. Oct.03-R4C

Friday

4. Oct.04-R5

Saturday

Topic: To Heal Humanity

1. Oct.06-R6

Monday

2. Oct.07-R7

Tuesday

3. Oct.08-POA

Wednesday

4. Oct.09-R8

Thursday

5. Oct 10-NCR

Friday

6. Oct.11-R9

Saturday

Topic: To Restore Families

1. Oct.13-R10

Monday

2. Oct.14-SCIMA

Tuesday

3. Oct.15-R11

Wednesday

4. Oct.16-R12

Thursday

5. Oct.17-R13

Friday

6. Oct.18-CAR

Saturday

Topic: To Redeem All Areas Of Life

1. Oct.20-R1

Monday

2. Oct.21-R2

Tuesday

3. Oct.22-ITM

Wednesday

4. Oct.23-R3A

Thursday

5. Oct.24-R3B

Friday

6. Oct.25-YPS

Saturday