4:13 Podcast: Can I Start a Morning Prayer Routine? With Tara Beth Leach [Episode 387]

Tara Beth Leach: I realized that the stories that we tell ourselves, I'm not a morning person, I'm not a morning person, really begin to shape how we live. And I do believe that we can become morning people. Not that everybody needs to wake up at 4:00 AM or even 6:00 AM, but that we would rise early enough to set our intentions in alignment with God at the very first moments of the morning hour.

Jennifer Rothschild: Are you a morning person? How about praying in the morning, morning prayer, how is that going for you?

Well, did you know that the practice of waking early to seek God is woven throughout the fabric of the Bible? From the Gospels to the Psalms, from the wisdom literature to the historical books, the Bible resounds with the call to seek God early so that we can set the tone of our day with prayer and then surrender the unfolding hours to his presence.

Well, on today's 4:13, author Tara Beth Leach is going to share how she adopted the ritual of rising early and discovered the transformative power of mornings with God. And she invites you to do the same. Now, you're going to get some practical guidance, some spiritual encouragement, and a structured yet very flexible approach.

So if you're not a morning person, do not fret. You're going to wake up, Buttercup, and we're going to do this.

KC Wright: Welcome to the 4:13 Podcast, where practical encouragement and biblical wisdom set you up to live the "I Can" life, because you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

Now, welcome your host, Jennifer Rothschild.

Jennifer Rothschild: Hey, friends. Jennifer here to help you be and do more than you feel capable of as you're living the "I Can" life of Philippians 4:13. Don't you just love it when you hear KC's cheerful voice? KC Wright, my Seeing Eye Guy. It's just two friends in the closet here --

KC Wright: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: -- down under the stairs, one topic and zero stress.

But you know what, KC? This topic could be stressful --

KC Wright: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: -- because if you're not a morning person, you're like, oh, no, thank you. I don't need to feel guilty that I'm not a morning person. You're right, you don't need to feel guilty --

KC Wright: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: -- and that's not what's going to happen here.

So I got to ask you, KC, are you a morning person or a night owl?

KC Wright: Well, okay, so I've gone back and forth. Okay. Years and years and years of doing morning radio on three or four different radio stations in my career, I've had to be in my chair at 5:00 AM.

Jennifer Rothschild: Which is miserable.

KC Wright: Okay? So I used to be a morning person. And then after I got out of morning radio, I went headfirst into being a night owl --

Jennifer Rothschild: Oh, wow.

KC Wright: -- and staying up till 1:00, 2:00, 3:00.

Jennifer Rothschild: Gosh.

KC Wright: But now at my young age --

Jennifer Rothschild: Yes, at your young age, with a daughter who has to get up for school.

KC Wright: Okay? So now here I have found myself in this season of life where Elly needs to go to bed early, because I'm taking her to school in the morning, and so I have found myself, like, when she goes to bed around 9:00, I'm like, I'm out. I'm clocking out.

Jennifer Rothschild: Dude, I get you. I, like, get giddy. When I get to get in bed between 9:00 and 9:30, like, I giggle sometimes when I get in bed.

But you know what's funny? I think I told y'all last year I got this Oura ring that tracks your sleep and your steps and your health. Okay. So I always wear it. And you sleep in it, of course, and it tells you what kind of sleep you get.

KC Wright: Wow.

Jennifer Rothschild: And so it will give you a sleep score. And, like, you can even earn a crown if you had good sleep. It'll tell you about your sleep efficiency. So that's really helped me --

KC Wright: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: -- understand my sleep.

But here's one thing I resent. Okay. It does determine whether you are a morning chronotype or an evening chronotype, which just means a morning person or a night person. It's just using a fancy ten dollar a word. Okay. But -- because you physically are wired usually toward one or the other. And so I am definitely a morning person. So I go to bed around 9:00-ish, 9:30. It doesn't mean I go to sleep, but, like, I get in bed, I listen to a book.

KC Wright: Right, right.

Jennifer Rothschild: Well, my Oura ring now will tell me at 7:30 PM, "Start getting ready for a good night's sleep." I'm like, Dude, this is -- I am not geriatric. What are you telling me to get ready for bed at 7:30 PM? I do not need to wind down, I do not need chamomile tea. Like, this is ridiculously early.

KC Wright: Right.

Jennifer Rothschild: It's an embarrassment.

KC Wright: Right.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah, like I'm a geriatric. So I don't know why Oura thinks I need to have an hour and a half bedtime routine.

KC Wright: Prepping for bed.

Jennifer Rothschild: Right. But -- anyway...

But here's the thing. When I first saw this book by Tara Beth, I thought, not sure. Not sure. Because I don't want to feel guilty or like I should get up because there's one way to do it.

If you're not a morning person -- my hubby is not -- it's okay. The point is spending time with the Lord. But also it is good to challenge our thinking and to consider -- just like it is not natural for us to fast, we would rather eat, perhaps there's a season of life where it is not natural for us to get up early, but that might be what we need spiritually.

Okay. There's even a quote there -- look at that, KC -- from Tara Beth's book that talks about, like, why we need this.

KC Wright: "In the stillness of the early morning, when the world is still quiet, a sacred moment beckons your soul to awaken. The day is yet untouched by the noise of chaos and clamor, and the heart can commune with God in ways the rest of the day simply cannot offer." Wow. See why we want you to listen to this and consider getting up early?

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah, seriously. Okay, I'm inspired. You're going to like this conversation.

All right, KC, let's introduce her.

KC Wright: Tara Beth Leach is a graduate of Olivet Nazarene University and Northern Theological Seminary and serves at Good Shepherd Church in Naperville, Illinois. She's the author of four books, including "The Great Morning Revolution." A frequent speaker at conferences, retreats, and universities all across America, Tara Beth addresses topics such as church leadership, women in ministry, and the spiritual practice of morning prayer. Tara Beth and Jeff Leach have been married for almost two decades now. They live near Chicago, Illinois, where they are raising two rambunctious sons.

All right. Take a sip of coffee, which is why I wake up in the morning. I start craving that coffee late at night. I even smell it sometimes at night looking forward to my coffee in the morning.

Jennifer Rothschild: I dream about it.

KC Wright: So take that sip of coffee, lean back, and listen in to Jennifer and Tara Beth.

Jennifer Rothschild: All right, Tara Beth, I'm so glad I get to meet you. This is going to be a fun conversation. And part of the reason I wanted to talk to you is because the title of your book, "The Great Morning Revolution." Okay. So some people hear that and go, "Yes!"

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: And some people hear that and go, "Ugh." So my questions, two as we start. Are you a morning person, or have you always been? And for those who are not, those who are night owls, why do they need to tune in and consider maybe getting up a little earlier?

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah, I was a self-proclaimed night owl for years. I was the student in college who waited to write my paper until 11:00 PM, and I would stay up all night long. I was the student in college that would set my alarm for 7:50 AM if I had an 8:00 AM class, and sometimes even oversleep for important things. I hated mornings. There was even a time where my husband came in our bedroom, when we were married early, and I had unplugged the alarm clock from the bed and I was holding it in my arms as I was sleeping.

And so when I began this journey, I remember thinking, Really, Lord? You want me to start rising early in the morning to be with you? And I realized that the stories that we tell ourselves, I'm not a morning person, I'm not a morning person, really begin to shape how we live. And I do believe that we can become morning people. Not that everybody needs to wake up at 4:00 AM or even 6:00 AM, but that we would rise early enough to set our intentions and alignment with God at the very first moments of the morning hour.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay, I love that. Because that's worthy. Whether you enjoy staying up late or whether you enjoy getting up early, all of us who are in Christ need a minute, whatever that looks like, in the morning. And so we're going to talk about the importance of that time of day, but before we get there, I would love if you'd share -- because I read that this book was born out of a very difficult season of your life. So if you could tell us how that challenge of that season led you to this new spiritual morning practice.

Tara Beth Leach: Yes, it truly was born out of the wilderness and darkness. It began in 2020. Which all of us lived 2020, I don't need to remind everyone what was going on. But I was living in beautiful, sunny Pasadena, California, serving a church that I loved, living in a home that we loved.

And in February of 2020, my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and my mom was diagnosed with dementia, a rare form of frontal temporal dementia. And then my parents lost their home. And during that pandemic, I was flying back and forth from LAX to Chicago to drive my dad to his treatment. And by August, we really just kind of hit a point where we -- my husband and I and children felt like God was calling us to move back to the Midwest to honor my mother and father. And so we did that and I was able to care for my dad for ten months before he passed. And eventually my mother moved in with us so we could care for her.

And around '21, I was in such a dark place, Jennifer. I was waking up most mornings completely despondent. I was questioning God's call on my life and the purpose of us moving back to blistery cold Chicago and no longer around the cackling parrots in Pasadena, and I was struggling to connect with God. And one blistery cold morning -- or day, the Lord just spoke very clearly to me, "Tara Beth, it's time to wake up. It is time to wake up." And I knew that God was calling me to a spiritual awakening, but I also knew that something had to change in my life and the patterns in my life.

And so that next morning I set my alarm for 4:30 AM, and I said, "Okay, God, here I am. I'm ready to wake." And days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, months turned into years, and I began to look forward to waking up in the morning and beginning my day with God. And eventually I remember I would say to my husband, "You know what? It has been such a great day, and it's been such a great morning because God set the agenda of my day." God set my intentions. Not my phone, not my social media, not my email, but God.

And eventually, great morning became a double entendre as it not only meant that it was great no matter what came my way, but it stood then for gratitude, reflection, exaltation, asking and trusting, which is the pattern by which I pray every morning and meet with God.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay. So when I read that, I loved it. And I want us to unpack that a little further. But before we get there, you mentioned something I want us to circle back to, Tara Beth. Because many of us, when we start the day, we do reach for our phone, you know, like to turn off our alarm. And then automatically it's like, oh, I got to check the news, oh, I got to check my email --

Tara Beth Leach: Yep.

Jennifer Rothschild: -- before we're even out of bed.

Tara Beth Leach: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: And so I'm curious, in your opinion, how do you think that does affect the way our day goes?

Tara Beth Leach: So I'll give you an example. Recently my husband and I were praying together. And when we got to reflect, we typically will read Scripture then. And we didn't have physical Bibles and so we said, oh, let's just read the Bible from the phone. And I grabbed my phone and a notification popped up for an email. And I opened the email and my husband said, "What are you doing?" I said, "Wait, wait, wait." And I just started scrolling and reading the email. And it was a hard email to read. It was work related. Someone was upset about something.

And, man, I tell you what, bitterness and anger sunk its teeth into my heart and impacted the rest of my morning. Whereas I think if I had begun with God first and allowed God to set my intentions for the day, and even my emotional patterns, I think that I would have received that email very differently.

And we are consumers, and everything that we consume as humans have a profound formational power in our minds and our hearts and our souls. And when we reach for our phones, immediately everything that we are reading from that device is forming our minds, it is forming our intentions, it is forming our emotions even. And if you think about offering our first fruits to God, the morning hour is an opportunity for us to give God our first fruits. Not our leftovers, but our first fruits.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah. And it's interesting when you say it that way too. When we don't, when we pick up our phone, that's who we give our first fruits to?

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: The news media? I mean, I've even thought recently -- there were some notifications. I would get on my phone. And every time I'd get one, I'd get this -- like just -- my spirit would get seized up, I'd get mad. And I think, you know, Jennifer, if this were an actual human, you wouldn't invite them in your home and say, "Here, come disrupt my life."

Tara Beth Leach: Amen.

Jennifer Rothschild: So why do we do that? I just think it's a mindless habit that we have developed because it's culturally normal. And so we do need to kind of jar ourselves.

And so with that in mind, I think of people listening that are like, okay, yeah, I get that, I need that, but I don't know. I don't know if I can make time in the morning, like, to pray, because I leave for work early or I have little kids or whatever. Okay? We'll talk about the practicality of how to do it.

But before we go there, I want to know what do you think the benefits are? Why does it matter that it's morning? I know you've kind of touched on it. But why does it matter that it's morning?

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah, when we wake up in the morning -- so we know the Scripture from Lamentations 3:22, "His mercies are new every morning." There is something about the morning hour where our minds are a blank canvas and we get to decide what are we going to allow -- who or what are we going to allow to have input on that blank canvas? And morning hour is an opportunity to let God do that.

And we see throughout Scripture -- there's Scriptural precedence. Yes, we see Jesus staying up late to pray, of course, many times. But we also see him rising early in the morning. And we see others in the morning who rise to be with God.

I think about Moses. Multiple times, especially in the time when he was meeting with God on Mount Sinai, we have a couple of different examples when it says explicitly "He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain." Later on, again after a mountain meeting with God, in Exodus 34 it says, "So Moses chiseled off two stone tablets like the first one and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning to meet the Lord." These are just two examples. But we see -- just a quick Google, friends, you can see so many examples of people in Scripture choosing the morning hour, giving their first fruits to meet with God.

Jennifer Rothschild: And he's worthy of that. He's worthy.

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay. So someone is listening and thinking, yes, my spirit says yes, but my flesh is just so incapable -- okay? -- so they think. Or the enemy of our soul can hijack this concept and turn it into legalism and we think, okay, it's just one more to-do list on my got to please God thing.

Tara Beth Leach: Yep.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay. So you write in your book that rising early is not about grinding through our exhaustion. Okay. Now, that's interesting. So I'd like you to unpack that.

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah. So it's not about grinding through our exhaustion, nor is it a legalistic ritual, but instead, we are rising because God is victorious. We are rising in response to the victory and the battle that has been won. And so this isn't a legalistic ritual, a chore, a to-do list, something to earn favor with God. We already have favor with God. We are already beloved. The victory has been won, Christ has risen. Christ has ascended to the throne. And so this is about opportunity. It's a privilege to be able to rise and align our lives with God.

And not everyone needs to be 4:30. By the way, I'm waking up between 5:45 and 6:00 AM right now. It's not 4:30. And that's just because we're in a different life stage. My boys are teenagers now and they are pretty independent in the mornings. But find a way, even if it's just a few moments, to have those transformational moments with God, not for God's favor, but because of God's favor.

Jennifer Rothschild: Ooh, I like that. Yeah, we're not earning anything, we're responding to what we've been given.

Tara Beth Leach: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay, that's motivating right there. That is very different than grinding through exhaustion. And I hear this too, Tara Beth, and I think, well, it doesn't mean you might not be tired some mornings, you know, but that doesn't mean that it's still not worthy.

[PARTNER INTRO - Palm Beach Atlantic University]

Jennifer Rothschild: All right, friends, picture this. A Christian community committed to learning, loving people, and equipped to change the world. And put all that right by the beach in dreamy West Palm Beach, Florida. Well, that is the university where I graduated, Palm Beach Atlantic University.

PBA's world-class main campus is located in downtown West Palm Beach, Florida. It's nestled right beside the intracoastal waterway and, get this, it's just a mile from the Atlantic Ocean. I remember with my boyfriend and with my friends walking across the bridge and hanging out right there at the beach. Oh, yeah.

The campus, it is beautiful. The surroundings are stunning. But the most beautiful thing about Palm Beach Atlantic University is the students and the faculty. The university is full of Christ-centered opportunities for learning, growing, oh, and it does have the most fun campus life. So PBA is going to equip your student to grow in wisdom, lead with conviction, and serve God boldly. So you need to check it out at 413podcast.com/PBA. Let's get back now to our conversation.

Jennifer Rothschild: All right, let's swing back now. The acronym that you use in the book that you just kind of went through with us is this great acronym. Okay? So it's Gratitude, Reflection, Exalt, Ask, and Trust. Okay.

Tara Beth Leach: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: All right. Take us through each one of those and kind of give us a feel for what it looks like when you get up at 5:45 and what this looks like for you and it can look like for us.

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah. Well, first of all, one of the things I've learned is waking up is moving my body immediately. And so one of the things I learned that doesn't work is staying in bed for this practice. There's something about getting that blood flowing and having a space, a designated space where you can connect with God. And I know for some mamas, for example, who have littles, that might be on the chair while you're nursing your baby, or maybe on the move while you're changing diapers, or maybe in the car after you drop your kids off at school.

But for me, I immediately go downstairs, I have my coffee, and I sit on the couch and I have that space. I have worship music on in the background. And I begin with gratitude. And sometimes it's verbal of saying out loud, God, I am so grateful for my home, I am so grateful for my children, I am so grateful for these amazing dogs that I have, and my husband. And it's simple things. It doesn't have to be profound. It is really just aligning ourselves to remember the very good things that God has given us.

And then on to reflection. Reflection, you think of holding up a mirror and you see your reflection. That's where we allow the Holy Spirit and God's Word to examine our hearts, examine our lives, and to show us the gap between righteous living and how we've been living. And my husband and I, we do that through reading Scripture. We read in the Gospels, then we go on to a psalm or proverb, and then we go into the Old Testament. And then we say, what has this Scripture reading revealed about areas in my life that God is asking more from me? Or is there something from this passage that God convicted me?

And then into exaltation. Then we are praising God in response that God has spoken, that God has revealed good things to me in Scripture and that God is speaking. And so from exaltation, sometimes we will say praises out loud. Sometimes, like this morning, it was worship music and we allowed the music to guide us in that song of praise. Sometimes we read Psalm 145 together.

And by the way, if you haven't caught on, I now do this morning practice with my husband. This is something that we do together.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah, I was realizing that, which is really cool.

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah, yeah. It's been, just really honestly, pretty profound for our marriage. And what God is doing in our prayer life together, it's been really transformational. There were seasons where my husband and I never prayed together. And it has just been completely transformational what God is doing. And that's lingering beyond the morning, by the way. I mean, we're finding that we're driving somewhere and we're like, "Let's pray."

Jennifer Rothschild: I love it.

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah. And then on to ask. This is our prayers of petition where we bring our requests before God. And we pray for our children, we pray for our church, we pray for our community, and we will just kind of go back and forth doing that.

Then this next part, trust, is really important. I am a person that tends to run anxious, and sometimes my prayers will get caught in this anxiety circle where I am using prayer as a way to cope with my anxiety. Which, great thing to do. But we also got to get to the place where we're able to say, "God, not my will, but your will be done. I surrender this to you." And it is amazing the release that happens in my body, mind, and soul when we pray that prayer of surrender. And so oftentimes for me, that looks like praying Psalm 23 and reading it. Psalm 23 is such -- just an incredible prayer of trust and surrender to God.

Jennifer Rothschild: I love -- you know what I also have noted, not only that you do this with your husband, but that you pray Scripture. You exalt with Scripture, you petition with Scripture, you trust with Scripture. And I think that's such a comforting notion. Because sometimes someone might think, oh, well, that's easy for her because she's like a professional Christian. She writes books. But I don't know what to pray. Well, you don't need to. You have Scripture.

Tara Beth Leach: That's right. That's right.

Jennifer Rothschild: And so -- okay, that might be a barrier for someone. But I'd also love for you to kind of talk through, are there some other barriers that you're aware of that might show up if somebody tries this? I mean, give us heads up so they don't become stumbling blocks.

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah. Don't start off too long. I think a barrier could be, Oh, my goodness, how am I going to find that time? Start short, start small. This can feel really overwhelming to people. And so it might look like keeping it as simple as possible. What's really important is that you begin with God.

Another barrier is work schedules. Perhaps you have an unpredictable work schedule where you might be called into a morning shift. Or maybe you're working two jobs right now and you think, wow, lady, that's really quite the privilege that you can do that, but I'm working two jobs right now. And so it's possible that someone might even be able to do this prayer practice when they're on the bus in between jobs and going from one place to the next. Get creative. A barrier is that we could get too rigid with this and, therefore, fail, not be able to do it.

Jennifer Rothschild: Right. Right.

Tara Beth Leach: And by the way, like -- again, this isn't about failure and succeeding really. Again, this is not about earning God's favor. But this is about bringing our lives, our souls, our minds before God so that we can be aligned with God.

Jennifer Rothschild: You know, too, Tara Beth, when you say that, just hearing your story, ultimately this is an act of worship because God deserves it. But what blesses him always benefits us.

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: Because you described how you started just because you felt like the Lord was saying do this and you did it. So I would love to know the transition -- because you said then at one point you couldn't wait, you just couldn't wait to get up the next morning. How long did that take for you?

Because I think sometimes we think, okay, God told me to do it. This is going to be like -- I'm going to Tigger out of bed, run in and have the best coffee of my life and just take on the day. Is it hard? Was it hard? How long did it take before it became delight, moved from discipline to delight?

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah. Oh, almost immediately. Because when we begin our days -- again, those morning hours are precious. And when we begin with God, we are going to experience the blessings of God. And the first morning I did it, I thought, why have I been waiting so long to do this --

Jennifer Rothschild: Oh, wow.

Tara Beth Leach: -- like this, in this kind of way? And I could hardly wait until the next morning.

Jennifer Rothschild: Oh, wow.

Tara Beth Leach: And there are mornings when we're on vacation or, you know, I had a really late night before, and the morning hour might get a little jumbled and I feel it. I feel it. You know, this morning I had so much joy, so much joy after being able to have that kind of prayer time with my husband, and it was right away. Not to say, like, that's everyone's story.

Jennifer Rothschild: Right. Right.

Tara Beth Leach: But what I will say is if you begin with God, you're not going to go wrong.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah. You're not going to be disappointed, are you?

Tara Beth Leach: No.

Jennifer Rothschild: There's no way.

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: I'm curious, do you journal when you're doing -- you know, the gratefulness, the reflection, the ask -- or exalt, ask, trust, do you journal your thoughts, your prayers, or is this just kind of a real time moment for you? How do you manage that?

Tara Beth Leach: I used to when I was doing this by myself. And if my husband is on travel for work, I will journal it. And so I do think independently for someone, if -- you know, most people are going to do this prayer practice alone, journaling is an incredible tool. Because I'm doing this with my husband right now and we're in a season where God is really calling us to deepen and increase our prayer life together, this is something that we are doing out loud together in the moment.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay. Which I love that you said the word "seasons" --

Tara Beth Leach: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: -- because there are seasons for all.

Tara Beth Leach: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: And what I've also heard you say, there's no one way to do this. You offer a framework.

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: But, oh, girl, we're just responding.

Tara Beth Leach: That's right.

Jennifer Rothschild: I mean, we're just responding to the spirit with us.

Tara Beth Leach: Our God is not a rigid God. God is a creative and open God.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah. Yeah. And what a privilege that he wants us to meet with him in the morning.

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: I mean, that's just astounding.

Tara Beth Leach: Yep.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay. Wow. All right. I'm so glad you've written the book.

Tara Beth Leach: Thank you.

Jennifer Rothschild: I'm highly recommending this to our people. This is going to be a great way just to start over. It's a revolution. It can be a start over for you. And sometimes when we don't know what to do, when we just sense, okay, Lord, maybe this is what you're calling me to do, do it. Do it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Tara Beth Leach: You have nothing to lose.

Jennifer Rothschild: Nothing. Maybe a little sleep. But, hey, I don't think that's a big deal. Especially the older we get. I sleep less anyway, it just seems. I'm up and down all night, so whatever.

All right, Tara Beth, let's get to your last question here. Because I feel inspired, I know our 4:13 family does too, so last question. All right, leave us with some encouragement. So what encouragement can you give to those of us who are thinking, oh, I need this. I am so spiritually fatigued and I'm just unsure how to begin this morning routine. What encouragement can you give us? Because she can't even think straight right now. She just needs you to tell her what to do.

Tara Beth Leach: Yeah. I would say make a decision right now. Which I know that sounds really like a bold statement because I don't know where your listeners are in life and what they're experiencing.

But I do know what it's like to be groggy and weary and in the spiritual wilderness. What's the worst that could happen if you wake up a little bit early tomorrow and allow the Spirit of the Living God to shape your intentions and agenda of the day? God delights in your sleepy head. God delights in your groggy eyes. God delights in that, and God delights in meeting with you. And so give it a chance. Make a decision now.

Jennifer Rothschild: All right, our friends, you heard her. Decide right now. Don't wait. So, like, what is the worst thing that could happen if you actually got up early and invite God to shape your day? Oh, our friends, he delights in you. So give it a chance.

KC Wright: Yes and Amen. You have nothing to lose but sleep. No. You have nothing to lose. We have a prayer podcast, actually, with Laura Johnson on prayer journaling, so it would really be nice to complement this podcast with that convo.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah, it would.

KC Wright: So we have a link to it and her steadfast prayer journal on the Show Notes right now just for you. It's simply found at 413podcast.com/377. And, of course, we're giving one of Tara Beth's books away at the Show Notes right now, or go straight to Jennifer's Instagram @jennrothschild.

Okay. Well, our cups are full for sure. This was such good stuff. So remember, you can do this. You can get up early, you can meet God in the morning, because you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. I know I can.

Jennifer Rothschild: I can.

Jennifer and KC: And you can.

KC Wright: But honestly, mornings, it's where it's at spending time with the Lord.

Jennifer Rothschild: I agree. Your brain is uncluttered.

KC Wright: It's the first thing, right?

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah. He deserves the first fruits.

KC Wright: Right. And life isn't a picnic. We are in a spiritual war, and you need to put on the armor of God. I pray Psalms 91 over myself. Praying in the Spirit, having the Holy Spirit produce your day. He'll tell you things in prayer. Do this, don't do this.

Jennifer Rothschild: That's good. I want the Holy Spirit to produce my day.

KC Wright: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: That's good.

KC Wright: He does. He does.