Miracle Morning – The Jesus Way

How do your days begin? With excitement about a new day of possibilities? Or with dread that yet another day of drudgery has dawned and the escape of sleep is behind you? If you’re in the latter boat – or even leaning in that direction, then The Miracle Morning might be just what you need.

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What is The Miracle Morning?

The Miracle Morning routine – remembered by the acronym SAVERS – is a good – possibly great – way to start your day. The premise of The Miracle Morning is that by taking time the first thing each day to work on personal development, a person will naturally become more focused and energized for the remaining tasks of the day. The concept of The Miracle Morning was crystallized from multiple sources by Hal Elrod. He is a self-improvement, pull-your-own-self-up-by-your-bootstraps motivational speaker and author. Let’s take a closer look at the six aspects of The Miracle Morning.

What Are the Elements of The Miracle Morning?

The Miracle Morning is built around six key activities that are done every morning. These activities can be remembered by the acronym SAVERS. This acronym stands for Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, and Scribing (journaling). As you can no doubt see from this list, there is nothing new here, except the acronym and the exhortation to practice each of these disciplines first thing every day – for anywhere from 1 minute to 20 minutes each.

Much of what Hal Elrond advocates in The Miracle Morning can be useful for believers in Jesus. But is all of it OK? And if not, could it be adapted for Christians? What we want to avoid is leaning into practices that are not biblical. As we look at each element of the SAVERS acronym, keep this question in mind: “Do biblical principles support, discourage, or condemn this practice?”

As we look at each element, remember that the acronym is a memory aid. It does not indicate or dictate a specific order for these practices.

Silence

The emphasis here is on meditating or centering oneself before hurrying into the hustle and bustle of the day. Prayer is mentioned as a possible format for silence to take. The biggest problem I see here is that, if prayer is used, it is ‘me-focused’ not Jesus-focused. However, just because the descriptive practice is me-focused does not mean that believers need to keep it this way. No, a Jesus-focused, God-focused prayer time is a wonderful way to start the day, and as such the silence portion of the Miracle Morning should be adopted and adapted to the believer’s own Miracle Morning.

Affirmations

Affirmations are a form of positive self-talk. Again, the emphasis is on the self, and self-improvement through the practice of repeating (often several times a day, not just in the morning) affirmations such as “I am loved,” “I can accomplish great things,” and “Today is going to be a great day.”

Again, as with silence, the me-focus can be shifted to be Jesus/God-focused, by simply rewording some statement (“I am loved by Jesus”), or replacing the affirmations with Biblical truths. For example, “I can accomplish great things” could be replaced with “Through faith all things are possible.” With this modification, affirmations can be a great way to start your day.

As an example, Beth Moore’s Bible study, Believing God, includes an assignment to repeat five statements every day – affirmations but with Biblical truth. The first two statements were about God: “God is who He says He is,” and “God can do what He says He can do.” Numbers three through five were about me: “I am who God says I am,” “I can do all things through Christ,” and “God’s Word is alive and active in me.”

You might also decide to use this element as a time for Scripture memorization.

Visualization

Visualization is both different and the same as affirmations. In Hal Elrod’s plan, affirmations are what you say to yourself to get yourself to believe you are able to change your life. Meanwhile, visualizations are what you look at or imagine to motivate yourself. For example, a person might say (affirmation) “Today is going to be a great day,” but visualize opening his/her own business in a year to motivate him/herself to do what is necessary to reach that goal.

Visualizations are more goal-oriented, and affirmations are more immediate-life-oriented. One way of participating in a visualization is to create a vision board. I have made a vision board before – two, in fact – and while they were fun to make, they didn’t change my life! No, the ‘power’ in visualization is in seeing yourself the way you want to be and then being inspired to make changes to get there.

What does this mean for a believer? It isn’t as straightforward as replacing silence with prayer and self-focused affirmations with biblically-based ones. Some believers think that any type of visualization is wrong – based on such verses as “We walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). Others think that this is an extreme view that would have eliminated much visual art because the artist must first imagine (or visualize), and then create his/her masterpiece. Therefore, these believers think that visualization, as an exercise of the imagination, is perfectly fine, but as a guaranteed path to success is way off course.

Finally, there is a group of believers that visualization is the path to material/business/relational success. They think that visualizing the right things will virtually guarantee those things will come to pass. I tend to fall into the middle group – believing that visualization as a way of motivating yourself – is perfectly fine. However, I am open to other insights into this puzzling question.

If you want to participate in the visualization portion of The Miracle Morning, one way would be to collect images that inspire you to seek the Lord above all else such as images of nature or cathedrals or graphic representations of favorite verses. Anything that makes you focus on Jesus more than yourself or your circumstances is a good habit to develop.

Exercise

What is there to be said about this? – for bodily exercise is of a little benefit (1 Tim. 4:8). We are to care for these frail bodies because they contain priceless treasure (2 Cor. 4:7), and to be good stewards of the life God has granted us. No need to substitute or quibble – exercise is a good thing! Whether you adopt Miracle Mornings or not!

Read

Hal Elrod suggests a self-improvement book; I suggest the Bible and possibly also a nonfiction Christian living book. But definitely, the Bible first. Don’t know where to start? Start with a gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John), then move on to the rest of the New Testament – just a chapter a day to start if you’ve never regularly read God’s Word. You could add a Psalm and/or a chapter of Proverbs every day too. If you choose to read Christian literature, do so after you’ve read the Scriptures. Give God first place! Good authors to start reading: Mark Batterson, Max Lucado, David Wilkerson, Lysa TerKeust, Jen Wilkin, or Jennie Allen.

Scribe

Finally, the last piece of The Miracle Morning regimen. Scribing means journaling – write down your thoughts about the day yesterday, your hopes for the day ahead, things you are grateful for, or things you want to change. Think of this as a brain dump on paper – write whatever suits your fancy, but do write. Many of the greatest Christian leaders throughout the centuries were journal-ers, so you’d be in good company if you choose to adopt this Miracle Morning habit. Some believers combine writing with praying, but that is up to you – writing your prayers can be very powerful and rewarding (just looking back at what God has accomplished!), but it is more time-consuming. Whether you journal hopes, events, plans, or prayers, start journaling today! OK – maybe tomorrow if you need to buy a journal!

Is The Miracle Morning for You – The Jesus Way?

That’s it – the essence of The Miracle Morning. It is a good routine to get into, and one which could pay huge dividends in your life as you draw closer to the Lord and seek to live your life by His precepts. Now, the task is to decide the order, and time allotted, for each portion. I’ve already been engaged in a few of these activities regularly (silence/prayer, reading, and scribing/journaling), but I intend to add the others beginning as soon as I return home from visiting grandkids. The order? I’m thinking of exercise, reading, prayer, affirmations, and journaling. The one area I’m unsure of including is visualization – but we’ll see. I will keep you posted about my success or lack, and let me know your thoughts and progress in the comments section.