He Awakens Me

“The Lord God has given me a tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught” (Isaiah 50:4).

What gets you out of bed each morning?  Is it your alarm, your kids, your internal clock or something else? Well, for the prophet Isaiah it appears that he was awakened each day by the Lord. But there is more. Not only did God awaken him from sleep, it was for a specific purpose; “to hear as those who are taught.”

Now I know that some of us are morning people and some are not. I happen to be a morning person, so getting up in the morning is not a difficult thing for me. I feel most alert, energetic and motivated during the morning hours. I get my best work done early. I suppose that’s a good thing (at least for other morning people.) But I want you to see what took place in Isaiah’s life, how his morning routine operated.

It appears that Isaiah understood that the purpose for which the Lord woke him early was so that he might be taught by the Lord in order to “sustain with a word him who is weary.” In other words, the Lord got Isaiah out of bed so that he might learn something to use in sustaining others. That’s quite instructive, don’t you think?

That observation leads me to a simple question. How do you spend your early hours? How do you invest your time at the start of your day? Is it in a semi-alert state as you seek to fully waken? Or have you sought to be as alert as possible so that you might listen to the voice of God, thereby enriching your heart, thus giving you a word to “sustain the weary”? 

One of the things I am more and more convicted about is how I use my time, and particularly how much time I waste. I’m certain each of us can relate to how frustrated we become due to our unwise use of time. Now I am not suggesting that we monitor every second of the day seeking to determine if we are using it wisely (although some measure of that might be helpful). But in line with what we have read about Isaiah, I am suggesting that perhaps selected segments of our day should be targeted, focused and devoted to things that better equip us to speak into the lives of others. 

For Isaiah, that targeted time was early in the morning. His posture was that of a learner; his teacher was the Lord. God cared so much about Isaiah that he woke him daily to teach him. Perhaps we might get ourselves out of bed at an early hour so that we might be similarly taught. From personal experience, I can tell you it works. Try it!