Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. Psalm 143:8

The renowned landscape photographer, Galen Rowell, echoed the Creator of the universe when he said, “My first thought is always of light.”

Light was the very first thing that God created (Genesis 1:3). Just as you can’t create beautiful photographs without light, we can’t thrive physically without it. This is true spiritually as well. The Psalms of David in the Bible speak often of greeting the first light of the day with time spent with God: “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love…show me the way to go,” David asked God (Psalm 143:8).

That assurance, the direction, the light, that we need badly every day is found in Scripture, called, “God’s Word.”  David realized the value of God’s word.  He wrote, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path (Psalm 119:105). But it’s so easy to shoot into our day without it.

Here is a challenge for you:  Would you be willing to make Scripture the very first thing your eyes take in, every day for a week?  This First Light Challenge is biblical; God longs to share your first light. God’s prophet Isaiah wrote, “Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will” (Isaiah 50:4). Scripture is one click away when you reach for that cellphone next to your bed. But there’s a world of distraction there too.

Henry Blackaby reminds followers of Jesus that “Jesus taught that your highest priority must be your relationship with Him. If anything detracts you from that relationship, that activity is not from God.”[1]

All that you need each day is in His Word. Try it tomorrow morning:  first light, God’s Word, first thing.

[1] Blackaby, Henry T. Experiencing God Day-by-Day: Devotional. B & H Pub. Group, 2006.