Awake At 4am, I'm Not Walking The Beach.

I do these daily devotions called "1 minute devotions" from rightfromtheheart.org. One morning I read this one devotion that talked about sometimes God wakes us up way early in the morning just to talk to us and teach us one on one. That has stuck out to me more than any of the hundreds of devotions that I have done. As usual I put it aside and forgot about it then remembered it again, and repeat. This morning I remebered it again. I woke up at 4am on the dot with my son crying. I tryed, oh did I try to go back to sleep after putting him back to bed but I could'nt. All i could think about was that devotion about how the God of the universe wanting to spend one on one time with little me. This time I did'nt put it aside I got strait up washed my face grabed a bible and went down stairs to see what would happen. WOW! It was so true I started praying for my family, friends, relationships, I even prayed for my dogs and felt lagit doing it.
I really flet Gods presence this morning. I ask God to teach me something give me wisdom and direction on how to further His Kingdom. What I got was some scripture that hit me like a tone of bricks. I relized that there were a lot of catching up to do in my life. From the way I treat my family, (no i'm not a bad father or abusive husband but there was things I could do to become a better father, a better husband) to relizing that I had some forgiving to do my self in order for God to forgive me. I learned that Ture worship is ginuine compassion for the poor, hopeless, and the oppressed. In Isaiah chapter 58 it talks about every bit of that and more. I ask God to show specific things to me and he did through this chapter.
Just recently I blogged about a conversation I had with a friend about how the music we write effects today society and  how it's a tool for the Kingdom of God. Well I found in this scripture this morning a perfect example. In verses 6-12 of Isaiah 58 it says this; we cannot be saved by deeds of service without faith in Christ, but our faith lacks sincerity if it dosent reach out to others. When I read that I was like "God could you be more obvious?"
 All in all this morning was such an energy booster for me and my walk with Christ. As i walked down the stairs to my living room I could hear the sound of my hevaenly father saying "Thats my boy!" Whats funny is thats what my earthly father tells me and used to tell me all the time when he was proud of me. It felt Good to spend that one on one time with God.
The way the scriptures end in this book are great. I have been trying to gear up to do this 40 day fast. Call me stupid or crazy but I really wanted to do this. With the way I tour and the lack of healthy foods and such on the road I was unable to do the fast. I got discouraged and thought of myself as a failure in this area. I've prayed since then to help me find away to "fast" so it may grow me and further my relationship with God. but the ending of Isaiah 58 ends like this; True fasting is more than what we DONT eat. It is pleasing God by applying His word to our scoiety. It hit me that maybe I need step back and look at this and really grow with God and his teaching even if I cant do the fast for 40 days.
This has been a long blog but I had to wright about it. I encourage you to read Isaiah 58: 1-14 and see how it relates to you.
C