For our Lenten series starting on Ash Wednesday February 14
th
we will be going Deeper in Prayer in line with our Deeper series for the year. I will be using the resource book, "Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge" by Mark Batterson. I encourage you to purchase the book to deepen your experience with this journey of Prayer. I have made copies of questions that correspond to each day's theme which can be picked up at the service on Ash Wednesday.
Like last year we will not have a supper on Ash Wednesday and will worship in the sanctuary at 7pm. The following weeks we will have a supper at 6pm and worship at 7 in the fellowship hall. There will be discussion questions provided for you to discuss at your tables during the meal and following the video message.
The following is the intro into Mark's book: The forty-day prayer challenge is going to change your life. In fact, the next forty days have the potential to dramatically alter the rest of your life. God is going to begin a good work in you, and He is going to carry it to completion. Miracles that happen in your life decades from now will trace their origin back to this season of prayer. Breakthroughs that happen during these forty days will become generational blessings that live on long after you die.
If you press into God's presence like never before, you will experience God like never before. You'll look back on these forty days as the best forty days of your life. They won't be the easiest forty days; in fact, they may be the hardest. Don't be surprised if you experience spiritual opposition along the way. But if you pray through, God will break through in new ways. It's as inevitable as the tide coming in.
There is nothing magical about forty days, but there is something biblical about it. That's the number of days Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting and praying. It marked a critical chapter in His life - the transition from His earthly father's business to His Heavenly Father's business. Jesus was tested like never before, but this experience set the stage for His greatest victories over the enemy. The war against sin and Satan may have been won on Calvary's cross, but the key battle happened in the wilderness three years earlier. When Jesus returned to Galilee, He wasn't the same person. You won't be either. You'll emerge from this forty-day prayer challenge, just like Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
If you want God to do something new in you, you cannot keep doing the same old thing. You have to do something different. And if you do, God will create new capacities within you. There will be new gifts and new revelations. But you've got to pray the price. You'll get out of this what you put into it.
Please consider making this time of gathering for a great meal and fellowship, and a time of great prayer and growth; a priority. Prayer is a gift from God that gives power, passion, and direction to our lives. A deeper prayer life is certainly a part of our journey to spiritual maturity. Please join your LCC family in 40 days of focused prayer during lent.
