First Fifteen

Your First Fifteen Minutes of the Day (Psalm 1)

January 06, 2020 Ron Oltmanns Season 1 Episode 1
First Fifteen
Your First Fifteen Minutes of the Day (Psalm 1)
Show Notes

How you start the day sets the course and tone for the rest of the day.  Spend your first fifteen minutes of the day listening to God and responding in a personal way. 

The featured scripture in this episode is Psalm 1.  In future episodes we use other scriptures from the Bible for our daily listening and response.

* To get a two page pdf that details the First Fifteen process, go here.

The Four Steps to Build Your Relationship with God

1.  Listen – read Scripture and listen to God speaking to you.  Expect him to speak to you.

2.  Engage – meditate and reflect on what God is saying to you personally.  Scripture portrays meditation as repeating a thought, a word or truth to ourselves.

3.  Pray – respond to God personally, using your own words or using the words of Scripture and praying them back to God as your own response to him.

4.  Apply – live out a prayerful response to God in your daily actions.  Do something concrete and intentional.

Psalm 1 - a demonstration of the four steps 

1 – Read/Listen

1) Blessed is one who does not walk by the advice of the wicked, nor stand around in the way of sinners, or sit with the mockers.
2) Instead, in the law of Yahweh is his delight, and on His law he meditates day and night.
3) He is like a tree planted beside canals filled with water which produces fruit in the right season, His leaves are lush, not withered, and everything he does prospers.

4) The wicked are not like this at all!  They are like the stubble and dry shells left after the good grain has been removed.  That stuff is thrown up in the air so the wind will carry it off, separating it from the good grain.
5) The wicked will not be rise up in the judgment nor will sinners join in the assembly of the righteous, 
6) for Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will be wiped out.

2 – Engage

The practice of meditation is directly mentioned in verse 2.  It is something the righteous person does regularly (“day and night”).  The Hebrew word for meditate comes from a moaning or growling sound that is voiced, but it points to musing or reflecting on something.  It doesn’t necessarily involve a certain posture but it does require giving conscious attention or repeating what we are meditating on.  In this psalm (and in Joshua 1:8) we meditate on God’s law, what he has revealed to us.  We delight in God’s ways and his law.  It’s a conscious choice we make in contrast to listening to or joining in the ways of the wicked who oppose God and his law.  

3 - Pray

We can read back the scripture and make it our own prayer.  We can also put it into our own words.  “God, I choose your way.  I set my heart on You, tune my ears to Your voice, fix my eyes on Your laws.  I will not listen to the crowd, or linger in the company of the wayward, or join in the jeers of the mockers.  I will hide your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.  Please give me fruit for my efforts, more fulfillment than I can imagine.  I am choosing to be Yours today.”

4 – Apply/Live Out

Take a concrete action that comes from what you have read or heard and prayed.

Examples:  Write out Psalm 1:2 in a journal or on a notecard

Set alarms/reminders on your phone to pause during the day and think about what you read

Share a verse with a friend or family member or on social media

Ask God to bring people into your life today and to give you chances to see his truth at work!

Support the show