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.
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.
