Friday, December 30, 2016

40 Days of Prayer

Sunday, January 8 — 
Sunday, February 19
a2 Church

Why 40 Days of Prayer?

In the Bible, 40 days seems to be a spiritually significant period of time.

Moses spent 40 days with God on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:18; 34:28).

Jesus was empowered for his public ministry of teaching, miracles, deliverance and challenging the religious authorities after spending 40 days alone in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-3; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-3).

The followers of Jesus were transformed after spending 40 days with Jesus following His miraculous resurrection (Acts 1:3).

Again, forty days seems to be a spiritually significant period of time. It was for Moses, Jesus and the first century followers of Jesus.

Further, when it comes to forming a habit, conventional wisdom estimates that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. But a substantial study revealed that this only relates to very “small” or “insignificant” behavioral changes like getting into the habit of drinking a glass of water after breakfast.

The same study revealed that it takes anywhere from between 18 to 254 days for people to form a new habit — depending on the behavior or habit you want to develop.  In fact, on average, it takes more than two months — 66 days to be exact — before a new behavior becomes automatic. [1]

The purpose of beginning the year with 40 Days of Prayer is to help the friends and family members of a2 Church to establish a “habit” or “routine” of daily time with God, which includes worship, reading God’s word, prayer and listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit.

My goal is to inspire, challenge and equip every person in the greater a2 Church family to create a “habit” of spending at least 15 minutes with God every day. I know, it would be great if people spent more than 15 minutes, but small, incremental shifts can bring about great, significant changes.

Also, for many people, spending an hour or several hours with God can seem daunting and even impossible. But 15 minutes is doable. And, 15 minutes multiplied by 40 days amounts to 10 hours! Over the course of a year, this will accumulate to more than 90 hours! A small incremental shift that would lead to significant transformation!

How could this change the life and ministry of a2 Church? Imagine, 100 percent of our church family spending at least 15 minutes with God every day day? The change would be seismic.

I’ll talk about this more on Sunday, January 8 as we launch our new message series,  sHiFt and 40 Days of Prayer!

But today is a great day to begin your Bible Reading Plan for 2017! I’ve written more about that here. It’s also a great day to make a small SHIFT and establish the “habit” or routine of daily time with God.

15 minutes  a day includes time spent in worship and gratitude, time spent reading and meditating on God’s Word (use your daily Bible reading plan), and, finally, time spent listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit. This really will TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE!

Make plans today to join us for sHiFt and 40 Days of Prayer launching at a2 Church on Sunday, January 8.







[1] https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/02/how-long-it-takes-to-form-a-new-habit/

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