Monday Morning – How Not to Become a Statistic

Statistically, there are more heart attacks on Monday morning than any other time in the week.

I’m sure you don’t have to hear that statistic to know the truth behind it; we’ve all tasted it. Monday morning can be a  treacherous outcropping with merciless waves of overwhelming responsibility, pressure and stress crashing in hard; along with the insidious temptations to “just get our shit together” and “make life work” for us and everyone depending on us. In other words, the messages are these: you are alone, it’s up to you, and you better not blow it.

Those temptations draw their power from our deep need for validation and identity.The pressure of a Monday morning tempts us to stay in (or revert to) an identity of orphan, making us vulnerable to the lie that we are alone and its up to us. The answer for how to “make life work” for the orphan is self-sufficiency and self-mastery. The other identity toward which the pressures tempts is that of a slave, making us constantly afraid of rejection, humiliation and blowing it. The emotional reality for the slave is fear, intimidation and bondage.

It doesn’t have to be your story.

There is another path.

Father, on this Monday morning I choose sonship.  I declare that you do not despise my need for you to affirm my identity and validate me afresh. Father, you say it is your delight to feed me daily bread. You created my need; you delight in meeting my need. Father, today I receive my identity from you. I receive my validation from you.

Who am I? I look and listen to you alone to answer my question.

Where does my worth come from? I look and listen to you alone to answer my question.

I receive a spirit of sonship over this week. I name it, and speak it over my family today. Over me, my wife, our union, over our children, our home, our property, our vehicles, our finances, the fullness of our domain.

I speak these truths over me:

It is NOT up to me. It is up to you, God. You are the hero of this story and I belong to you.

I am NOT alone. You are my true Father and you created me for intimate, daily companionship with you. You promise that I can hear your voice and that you will lead me. I do NOT need to fear “blowing it.” You are my affectionate and loving Father. There is nothing that I could do to cause you to reject me or remove your affection from me (Romans 8).

I am loved. I belong to you. I am yours.

I choose to be fed by you and not by the inbox.

In the name of Jesus, my brother, who models for me today, yet again, what it looks like to live as a son.

Amen.

A bunch of men could have heart attacks today.  Many of those heart attacks will be the result of living for years under a false identity and drawing validation from the wrong well.  You don’t have to be a statistic.

There’s another path. A narrow path…

You are a son and your Father knows you need His Fathering today.

It’s yours if you want it.

(For more you might enjoy The Decade of Sonship or How Have You Learned the Father)