Monday, June 28

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
—Psalm 90:14

Each new day brings with it the opportunity of a fresh start, and yet we do not greet each day with delight and anticipation for new possibilities. There are mornings when we want only to stay in bed rather than face an onerous task, or meet with someone with whom we are at odds, or be reminded of a memory that is too painful to bear, or recall the horrible situation we have gotten ourselves into. 

Not every morning shines before us with the brightness of potentiality. On those mornings the sun feels like an unwelcome guest, and we long to have the darkness of oblivion close over us again.

We would like most of all, we think, to have our situation altered so that we wouldn’t have to face what stands impermeable before us. But changing our situation would be only a temporary release until some other nasty circumstance presented itself.

Only love—knowing we are loved, knowing that the heart of heaven has not deserted us—can give us any sense of peace and joy on those mornings. It is only steadfast love that can keep us steady on days of glory and days of sorrow. 

When we want only to slide beneath the covers so that we don’t have to face another day, or when we want to jump out of bed to greet the morning with excitement, it will always be the love of God that remains unchanged and unchanging.

O God, when my heart is heavy or when my heart is light, let your love be the first thing that brings me to morning consciousness.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2003.