The Daily CHEW™
Moving God’s love from head to heart for Christian professionals
The first fifteen minutes at your desk on Monday are already discipling you. The only question is what.
For most Christian professionals I know, it is the inbox. Sometimes it is a market chart, a Slack thread, or a project management dashboard. Whichever it is, it becomes the voice you are receiving from before God has said a word.
That is why the day so often feels reactive by 9 a.m. You already received your marching orders from something other than Him.
C.H.E.W. with Me
C — Clarity — What you take in first, you carry
Jesus said it plainly. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). The word first is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
First is not a moral instruction. It is a mechanical one. Whatever you seek first is what is set in the driver seat of the day. Every other input arrives to a driver who has already been chosen.
The first fifteen minutes are not about getting ahead. They are about who is at the wheel.
H — Hear — Seek first His Kingdom
The verse that has been reshaping my Mondays is John 17:23. “Loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:23). Because that is true when I sit down, the day is not a place I am proving anything.
It is a place I am spending what has already been given.
The inbox will always feel urgent. God’s love is quieter. So the first fifteen minutes have to be intentional or the loud one wins. It is not moral failure. It is physics.
Worth Sharing
“The first fifteen minutes are not a race. They are a reception.”
— The Daily CHEW™
E — Exchange — Because His love is already given
Because His love is what it is, how does the first fifteen minutes change?
Because He loves me as much as He loves Jesus, I do not need to arrive at my desk anxious to prove Monday will go well.
Because He loves me as much as He loves Jesus, the emails waiting for me are tasks, not verdicts.
Because He loves me as much as He loves Jesus, the decision I have been paralyzed on all weekend can be brought to Him first, before it gets absorbed into the day.
That is what receiving looks like. Not more time. Not a longer devotional. Just the first fifteen minutes belonging to the One who already loves you as much as He loves His Son.
Because God loves you as much as He loves Jesus, what would the first fifteen minutes at your desk look like if you were receiving from Him instead of reacting to whatever opened first?
W — Walk — The desk as your anchor
Anchor time: the moment your laptop opens. Before you click anything, say the verse. Then ask the question. Because He loves me as much as He loves Jesus, how does that change the fifteen minutes I am about to spend?
For me it looks like this. Verse. One breath. The one hard decision I know is waiting, brought to Him before I bring it to a spreadsheet. The one anxious loop I noticed in the shower, named to Him before it names my Monday.
That is not a productivity system. That is a reception. And what you receive first is what you run on.
What is the moment at your desk on Monday where the verse and the question could go, so that God’s love is the first voice at your day instead of the last?
With you on the journey,
Ryan
CHEW on this today
Because God loves you as much as He loves Jesus, what would the first fifteen minutes at your desk look like if you were receiving instead of racing?
Ryan writes these with AI to help him say it better. Read more →
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