5 Ways to Make Worship Part of Your Morning

Worship in the morning does not require a good voice, a quiet house, or forty minutes. It requires a decision made the night before about what the first part of the day is for.

Colossians 3:15 says to let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. Rule is a governing word. Worship in the morning is less about feeling something than about settling early who is in charge of the day. Five ways, all of which fit inside a morning that already has other things in it.

One: The First Sentence

Before you speak to anyone, say one sentence to God. It can be the same sentence every day.

Something plain works best. That you are his, that the day is his, that you need help. The point is that the first words of the day go somewhere on purpose.

Say it before your feet reach the floor if you can. There is a small window between waking and the day arriving, and a sentence placed inside it holds the whole morning differently.

Two: One Sung Verse While the Coffee Brews

Ninety seconds of standing still is built into every morning that involves a kettle or a coffee maker. Use it.

One verse of a hymn or a chorus you know. Quietly, if the house is asleep. It still counts and it still works.

It matters less what you sing than that you sing something. Half remembered words are fine. Nobody is marking it and the point is the posture, not the performance.

Three: Read a Psalm Out Loud

Reading aloud converts a text into worship in a way that silent reading rarely does. The short psalms are made for this.

Psalm 100 takes forty seconds and it tells you exactly what to do with the next hour.

Four: Give the Playlist a Job

Make one short playlist, six songs, and start it as you get dressed rather than choosing music each morning.

Choosing is where the intention dies. A playlist that begins with one tap will still be running in November.

Six songs is about twenty minutes, which is roughly the length of getting dressed and making a bed. Match the playlist to the task and it will never need willpower.

Five: End the Morning With a Handover

Before you leave the house or open the laptop, name the day's hardest part out loud and hand it over.

This is worship as much as any song. It is an admission of who is actually running the day, spoken at the exact moment you are about to try running it yourself.

Pick the One That Fits Your Kitchen

The sung verse and the first sentence cost nothing and fit anywhere. Start with one of those.

Tomorrow, before you speak to anyone, say your sentence. That is the whole of it, and it is already a beginning.

None of these five take a spare hour, which is deliberate. Worship that requires a free morning will happen twice a year, and worship that fits beside the kettle will happen most days.