Starting your day off on the right foot means starting with God. A time of study, prayer and fellowship. Of abiding with God. What does that look like? Here is the pattern we follow. Adapt it, make it your own.

A First-Fruits Qadash: Abiding With God

Qadash (also kadash, Hebrew) means to be set apart, consecrated, holy. A First-Fruits Qadash is a divine appointment, a time set apart at the beginning of the day for worship, prayer, and fellowship with God. What follows is a framework for your daily time with God. A First-Fruits Qadash. Buckle up.

The Christian Mission Statement is to know God and to make Him known. We come to know God by discovering His character and attributes through Revealed Truth, including His Word and the person of Jesus Christ. And when we know Him personally, we begin to change to be more like Him. It starts with the fellowship of a First-Fruits Qadash.

Our relationship with God should be the highest priority of our life. Our daily goal ought to be to abide with God every moment. A First-Fruits Qadash is a divine appointment with God at the beginning of each day. A special time of abiding with God. Of honoring Him with the first-fruits of our time.

Abiding with God requires wellbeing of body, soul, and spirit (Note 1). Without wellbeing, you are no good to God, to yourself, or to those around you. Wellbeing is achieved in the following sequential order:

1. Rest (Sleep)
2. Exercise
3. Diet
4. Abiding (Nourishment of the Soul)
5. Everything else.

To Abide Or Not To Abide?

Abiding with God has a cost. That cost is time. Time is a gift of God. You are but a steward of it. Shoehorning 10 or 15 minutes into the morning will not lead to an abiding relationship. Bring glory to God by spending His gift wisely. Consider getting up earlier. (Note 2)

The cost of not abiding in God? “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5b). Stuck. No sanctifying growth. Don’t share/disciple. No fruit. The payoff for abiding? A closeness that impels sanctification and provides a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Your divine appointment starts the night before by confirming to God your ardent desire and commitment for the meeting. By going to bed on time. And by setting your alarm (ideally for the same time each day).

The Qadash

The Approach (Note 3). A time of fellowship with God in the style of Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus. Be humble. Avoid legalism. Put yourself in the right posture, removing anything that might be an impediment to fellowship (Psalm 139:23-24 TLB). Confess sin. Seek forgiveness.

Consider opening the time with the reading out loud of a Psalm or prayer devotional to align your soul and spirit.

The Question: What do you want me to do first today, Lord? Do I read Your Word? Or do we spend time together in prayer? Listen; follow where the Spirit leads.

This Is The Word Of The Lord: The goal of studying God’s Word is to come to know God, to hear from Him. The Holy Spirit is our Guide and Explicator. Read for meaning, not miles. Don’t read to get through a chapter, or to get through x chapters a day, etc. Read until the Holy Spirit illuminates something off the page. Until you have the sense ‘that was special’, ‘that was powerful’, ‘that was arresting’. A ‘wait a minute’ or ‘aha moment.’ This is what You wanted me to hear today.

Have an organized reading plan but let it unfold as the Holy Spirit leads. Recommendation: Start with a read through the Bible in 3-year plan (roughly a chapter a day). Then read as much or as little as you are led each day.

Prayer: Surrender your life to God. Ask Him to order and direct your steps for the day, to intervene in the affairs of your life for His glory, that He would be the source of all comfort, that you would put Him first in all things. Maintain a written list of specific people and things to pray for: your immediate and extended family, friends in need, non-believers, your church leaders (shepherds), your church, persecuted Christians, revival. Update regularly.

Prayer is a two-way street. Resist becoming so fixated on what you want to say that you fail to quiet yourself and allow space for God to speak.

Journal: A holograph of your time with God. Handwritten or electronic. Write out your prayers. Referenced (date on Bible reading tying back to holograph).

Miss A Day? Sometimes you just have to bow to the absurd, to the reality on the ground. Take a deep breath and get back on schedule tomorrow. God’s mercies begin afresh each morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). Abiding includes a longing for and missing your time with God.

Multipliers

1. Uninterrupted and unhurried. Just you and God. Something vying to get or hold your attention? Leave it to the end. It may well be answered or dimmed after your time of abiding.
2. The abiding continues: Fellowship doesn’t end when First-Fruits worship ends. Worship (luxuriate) in Him. Music. Observe and listen to nature. Turn off car radio.
3. A First-Fruits Qadash is part of an abiding relationship with God. In John 15, Jesus uses the word abide ten times in the first ten verses (“I am the vine”). You cannot have an abiding relationship before you have a relationship. Nor is abiding about performance or religious rule following. The secret to abiding begins with prayer.

Note 1: The soul and the spirit are connected but separable (Hebrews 4:12-13). The soul is the essence of our humanity, it’s who we are, both now and for eternity. The spirit is the indivisible part of humanity that connects us in relationship with God.

Note 2: I will be late for our meeting. I have been detained in fellowship by the Holy Spirit.

Note 3: O Father Of Jesus, Thou art beyond the grasp of my understanding, but not beyond that of my love. Help me to approach Thee not with presumption nor servile fear, but with deep reverence, holy boldness, and true humility. Adapted, The Valley of Vision, Arthur Bennett, Isaiah 55:6-10.