When I developed the habit of waking up early for prayer, it didn’t start with simply waking up early. It was about going to sleep early. I had to change the time I went to sleep if I wanted to keep my habit of waking up early for devotions. Otherwise, I knew it would not last for more than a few weeks without my body crashing.

God wired our bodies in a such a way that they need to sleep at night so they can function fully during the day . When I was a teenager, I heard John Bevere talk about how if you want to spend time with the Lord in the mornings, you must go to sleep before 10 p.m. In fact, he said that any minute after 10 p.m. you don’t spend sleeping is the time you are robbing from Jesus. That hit me like a ton of bricks. My goal is to honor my appointment with Jesus every morning. The price I pay is that I have to go to sleep early. I always say that my prayer time does not start in the morning, it starts at night.

Without getting a good night sleep, you won’t be able to have a good prayer time, or be fully awake during the day. I am pretty sure that’s not new for you.

God doesn’t want us to run on caffeine but on a good night’s rest. In fact, in Genesis, God measured a day from evening to morning. “God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day‚” (Genesis 1:5). Practicing Jews observe the Sabbath beginning at sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday. In God’s Word, the day begins with rest.

Today, many of us begin our day with coffee. In God’s world, your day has to begin with a good night’s rest.

If this blog post was a blessing to you, please #share it with your friends. 

This blog was written by Vladimir Savchuk.

Pastor Vlad is the lead pastor of Hungry Generation Church, an author of “Break Free” and “Single, Ready to Mingle” and a founder of free online school “Vlad’s School.” To download free e-books, sermon series, small group study guides go to vladimirsavchuk.com