Press the arrow to see a very different way to start your morning!

Scripture
Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship,
for they will walk in the light of your presence, Lord.
They rejoice all day long in your wonderful reputation.
They exult in your righteousness. Psalm 89:15-16

Observation
Shhh! Can you hear it? If you listen underneath the noise of the alarm clock radio, the Today Show, tires thumping over concrete cracks, ringing phones and all the sounds of daily life you will hear it. It sounds like a party in the distance. There is not one speaker or amplifier, but the volume pulses with the voices of billions. Heaven is waking you up today, if you will listen.

God wakens us each morning with the sounds of heaven, if we will make the choice to listen. The Orthodox Jew rolls out of bed and makes the first words he speaks each day praise to the Lord. The prophet Zephaniah writes that the Lord “rejoices over us with singing.” God is giving a concert and it is our choice to listen.

The choice to listen to the morning call to worship changes an entire day. It is not as if we must live in monastic silence to hear it. Instead, in the cacophony of sounds the choice to concentrate on the conversation of heaven is all that is required. Our voice added to that echo makes all the difference.

Application
The other day I wanted to wake up grumpy. As I drove my wife to work and we prayed together in the car, the first words in my mind were protest and not praise. But I made a choice to tune my instrument with the sounds of heaven. I didn’t speak any of the grumpy words. I spoke words of thanks for things I did not feel but were solidly true. The more I spoke those words of thanks, the more I found myself hearing delightful sounds of heaven. It is impossible to have a pity party when heaven is having its own party every day.

Words of thanks and praise are the fastest way to land in the presence of God. We enter the gates of God’s city with “thanksgiving” and we walk into his house with “praise” (Psalm 101). Faster than we can say, “Beam me up Scotty”, our words of thanks and praise take us from the grey city where we live into the bright city of God.

Happiness is a choice to live with the happiness of God. Why would I want to live beneath my privileges of joy when there is so much to be received?

Prayer
Father, today I’m listening and responding to the sounds of heaven. Help me to worship all day long. Amen.