Here is an example of how I partner with God in a simple, everyday thing. It’s not anything earth-shattering or heavy-revy. But it’s making a huge difference in my life. And there’s a big takeaway here that I pray you find useful in your own life.

How I Partner with God for My Daily Wakeup Time

So I used to set my morning alarm at 4:45 AM (Monday through Friday). Here was my typical daily routine:

• 4:45 AM: Alarm goes off, get up & go to the gym.
• 5:45 AM: Leave gym, come home, shower, get breakfast & coffee.
• 6:30 AM: Leave for work.
• 7:30 AM – 5:00 PM: At work for 9.5 hours (8 hour work day).
• 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM: Work on website during 1.5 hour lunch break.
• 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM: Commute home.
• After 6:00 PM: Dinner and spend the evening with Janet.

I did this for a long time, and it was fine. But usually that alarm going off at 4:45 was not a friendly sound, even though my phone’s alarm is a song I like. Sometimes I’d be ready to get up, but sometimes I’d be in a deep sleep and wake up groggy. Almost always, I’d wish I’d slept longer, but duty calls, so up we go.

Then I revamped my “official” daily schedule to this:

• 6:45 AM: Drop-dead alarm time, shower, get breakfast & coffee.
• 7:30 AM: Leave for work.
• 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM: At work for 8.5 hours (8 hour work day).
• 12:00 PM – 12:30 PM: Work on website during half-hour lunch break.
• 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM: Commute home.
• After 6:00 PM: Dinner and spend the evening with Janet.

I still set a “drop-dead” alarm time, so I’m not late for work. In the last 6 months since I’ve been doing this, that drop-dead alarm has gone off maybe twice.

Before going to bed, I pray, “Lord, wake me up when you know I need to get up to live the day you have planned for me tomorrow. Thank you in advance for giving my body all the sleep it needs.”

Then I wake up naturally, when my body is done sleeping. I believe that’s God keeping his side of the bargain. So my partnership with God is, “Any time after 4:00 AM that I wake up, I’ll believe that’s You, and I’ll get up.”

So How Has This Been Working for Me?

There are days when I wake up at 5:00 AM naturally, versus waking up at 4:45 AM to the alarm. And I feel so much better! I’m not groggy. I feel refreshed and rejuvenated.

And there are many ways to make-up that 15 minutes. Some days, God knows the commute will be shorter because traffic is better. Or I take 1.25 hours instead of 1.5 hours for our website at lunch. Or I leave work at 5:15 instead of 5:00. That 15 minutes really doesn’t make much of a difference to our evening.

But most of the time, I wake up before 4:45 AM! Often I wake up at 4:15 or 4:30. That gives me time to have a short devotion time with the Lord, still get to the gym, and often I get more than 1.5 hours website time at lunch, because I’m getting to work before 7:30.

And I wake up feeling great because my body got all the sleep it needed. If my body needs more sleep, it can have it. I can either skip the gym or have less website time that day. I’m still getting to the gym at least 3 times a week, and I’m getting more website time over the week than I did before.

It doesn’t make sense on paper, but partnering with God just works. So many days I’ve gotten more sleep at no cost, because traffic was lighter that day. So many times I’ve had extra website time, and needed, to the minute, exactly that much time to accomplish that day’s important website task.

The Big Takeaway: If God Doesn’t Come Through, It Doesn’t Work

But here’s the thing. A half-hour a day is not enough time to work on our website. That is not enough time to be successful. So if I wake up to my drop-dead alarm on a regular basis, our website fails.

Also, in order to stay healthy, I need to go to the gym at least 3 times a week. If I wake up to my drop-dead alarm, there’s no time for that.

So if God doesn’t come through, it doesn’t work, which is really risky. And scary. I’m risking our website. I’m risking my health.

But God does come through for me, over and over again. Every. Single. Morning.

I had to give up control. I gave up my schedule, where every day is the same & I guaranteed each activity has the time it needs. But, truth be told, that schedule was killing me, running me into the ground. I couldn’t maintain it.

Partnering with God is worth it. But you’ve got to set it up so it doesn’t work if God doesn’t come through.

Your Turn – Experiment!

This post isn’t about not setting an alarm. It won’t work for everyone, and that’s ok.

This post is about partnering with God in a practical way that matters, and setting it up so that if God doesn’t come through, it doesn’t work; something fails. And that will look different for every person. That will look different for you than it does for me.

You can still have a safety net, like I have with my drop-dead alarm. That’s not a lack of faith, that’s just being responsible. But I trust God that he will come through, and I’ll hardly ever need it. And that’s been my experience.

So experiment! What practical thing can you partner with God for? How can you set it up so that if God doesn’t come through, it doesn’t work? What practical thing does God want to partner with you for? Ask him! And then act on your next thought.

Let me know what you do and how it works; email me at dave@IdentityInWholeness.com.

So what are you going to try? Or have you done something like this before? Tell us in the comments. And please share this post if it would bless others.