40 Days: In the Morning (Confessions of a Night Owl)

There are many verses that talk about rising early to pray, but the one I have always held onto is Psalm 119:62--"At midnight I rise to give you thanks..."

I've historically not been a morning person.  I pray throughout the day and usually at night, although I tend to cut my time short at night because of sleepiness.  So what would it be if for 40 days I rose in the morning to spend an hour "praying in the spirit on all occasions?"  Would morning make a difference?

The forty days are done and I have to say the first 20 days were some of the best.  It really did set the tone for the day.  My spirit felt full as if I'd had a big meal.  The second 20 days I began to falter.  I am moving a couple thousand miles away in a couple of weeks and my tiredness has increased.  My hour prayer time was reduced to being spread out throughout the day as I was just plain tired!  It didn't feel the same.  I still had my prayer time in, but something changed.

I still think we can be morning pray-er people or night ones.  David Wilkerson of Cross and the Switchblade prayed at night and out of it came his entire ministry.  But I think there is something special to the morning.  I just don't know how to overcome the extreme tiredness I feel.  Going to bed early isn't always easy because it doesn't mean you fall asleep right away.  But I want to continue working on this one because as much as I hate to admit it, I think the morning birds may be on to something. 

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(The next 40 day experiment I think will be my hardest one yet.  Stay tuned.)

40 Day Summation: Healing the Sick

 1 Corinthians 9:25
"Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever."

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To say that this 40 days of praying for the sick/healing the sick did not look like what I expected is a bit of an understatement.  I truly thought finding sick people would be easier.  In the home stretch I think in some ways I stopped trying to find people and just started praying for sick I knew about.

Overall this has been a good training experience.  I was able to pray directly with 22 people and then for 18 other cities, nations, families, facebook requests and even for a cat.  Yes, a cat.  Gotta practice somewhere.

I do believe I've changed from this experience.  I am more keyed in on prayer requests now and don't take them as lightly.  If people are asking for prayer, let's pray for them right then and there.  I've also been challenged by what I believe about healing and my own heart's inhibitions.   I realized when I didn't see healing or find people to pray for  I slipped into casual, wishful thinking mode instead of contending intercession.  This issue needs addressing.  Lastly I feel like my eyes are more trained on seeing people's needs.  It's been good.  Really good. 

So the 40 days of "training for godliness" continues.  I have a whole host of 40 day challenges that I want to do and it seems like the Lord is leading me down a path of when to do these.  I do have another 40 day challenge I feel like I'm to do but I'm going to wait to start June 1st.  A little bit of a break isn't bad.  :)

40 Days: Fruits and Vegetables

Some little discoveries I had tonight.  I went on a 40 day fruit and vegetable fast (during the book fast) and since then I've really not wanted to go back to all the other junk.  My endurance is better, I feel better and eating well is just...better.  And for the most part I'm not eating all that bad stuff again (although at this very moment I am taking a slight deviation).  But more importantly when I was at the store, for a moment my mind wanted some kind of junk to eat, mainly for comfort.  I've worked 10 days straight, have 2 to go, and I'm wanting comfort in this tiredness.  But I realized I didn't so much want food anymore as comfort, I just want a hot shower.  Imagine that, more righteous forms of comfort have become my craving.  Very cool.  Additionally I haven't wanted to read much other than the Bible.  I've longed to keep that desire.  I hope that these things remain as I really am liking the fruit.

40 Days: Books vs. The Bible

Today is the last day where I took 40 days of not reading any books other than the Bible (with the exception of an occasional Oswald Chambers short devotional).    I did it out of a recognition that while I read Scripture daily, I read a lot of other books.  Mostly books that inspire my faith but the bottom line is they were getting more of my time and attention than the Bible.

I realized some things in these 40 days.  First of all, that 40 days is a LONG time.   Maybe if I do any of these experiments I've been talking about 40 days would be a good number.  It's long enough that you really get challenged to break old paradigms.  Secondly during this 40 day absence of reading other books I began to think about the kind of books I have been reading.  Most of them are stories about people living the kind of life that I long to live, doing the things that I would like to be doing, and God willing hope to be doing someday.  Dreams I've been pursuing for years.  Yearnings of the heart that only God knows if they will come to fruition.

Even more than that though in the past few weeks I feel like I've really had a new desire to read and meditate on Scripture.  I've WANTED to and have had the desire to read Scripture more than usual.  I've also read things and my eyes have been more open to things I haven't seen before, little details I missed or parts that I thought I understood but really didn't.  It's been so good.  Perhaps we have a subtle hunger that is easily suppressed when fed too quickly with the substitute, albeit a good one. 

The next question on the table is "where to from here?"  It's kind of like ending a diet or a fast and the first thing you want to do is run out and gobble down all the food you couldn't have.  But the greater desire I have is a hunger not to lose...the hunger.  The hunger for the Word.  I want to look forward each time I come to the Word and not just with a hunger of the head or even the heart but a hunger of the spirit.  Not just the intentional, dedicated approach to the Word but the approach of one who smells fresh baked bread (and knowing that there's real butter in the fridge).  Perhaps this isn't the end of an experiment but just the beginning of a new one. 

What if...?

Recently I read the book called "7:  An experimental mutiny against excess" written by Jen Hatmaker.  A good idea of a book.  For 7 months she tackles an excess and works with 7 things.  For example, dealing with excess food, she chooses 7 foods and eats them only for a month.  For excess stuff, she had to give away 7 things a day.  For excess clothes, she wore only 7 articles of clothing for a month.  Interesting idea that left her changed.  And it made me begin to think:  What if I were to take 7 forms of obedience to God and obey them every day for a month?  For example, what if I shared the gospel with at least one person every day for 30 days?  What if I prayed for a sick person to be healed every day for 30 days?  It would make an interesting experiment, although the very word "experiment" sounds bad.  But what if I took this challenge on, what would happen?  I'm thinking about this.  Wondering if I could draft a friend to take this on with me...  And also, thinking through 7 areas of obedience.  Hmm....