How to Start Your Day Well (and Why It'll Change Everything)

How did your day start today? Let me take a few guesses. Some of you rolled out of bed and thought to yourself, Oh no. It's Friday the 13th. I wonder what bad thing will happen to me today. Or maybe you thought, Tomorrow is February 14 ... and then ... I've got to get to the store today! I can't wait till tomorrow! I'm going to dread tomorrow! Or perhaps you simply started the day like most other days, thinking about all the things to do before the weekend, all the calls to make, all the bills to pay, all the worries to worry about ... I feel blessed today. I started my day reading from Psalm 146: Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. (vv. 1-2) This psalm begins with the Hebrew word, Hallelu. You know, Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! But the psalmist isn't saying this to others. He's telling himself to praise the Lord! It's a necessary reminder to himself, to his soul, to give praise to God. This is something that ought to come naturally to us, and I imagine it did to humans before sin. But now so many other things, other priorities, other worries, distract us. And so we must constantly, daily, remind ourselves each day to Hallelu, praise the Lord, my soul! Starting your day this way changes everything! As in Psalm 145 and other places, the psalmist is acting upon his will, not just his emotions or his intellect. I will praise the Lord! As I start each day, I may or may not think I should praise the Lord. I may or may not feel like spending time with Him and worshiping Him. This is a matter of the will. I will praise the Lord all my life. This is my priority. I will seek Him first (Matt. 6:33), above all else. I will love Him with my whole being. I will because this is now who I am, a new person in Christ Jesus. When I start my day with Hallelu, praising the Lord, I am telling my soul and I am reaffirming to God and I am modeling for my family that He is my top priority. He is transcendent, above all else to me. I'm starting my day acknowledging that He is my God, my only God, and I won't have any other gods in my life.