Happy! Happy Sunday to y’all.  I pray you were able to get up a little earlier than usual this morning? Were you able to grab your favorite morning drink; pull out your Draw the Circle book and your prayer journal.  I pray you did.  Are you excited?  I am thrilled to get started.

“If my people, who are called by name, will humble themselves and pray ad seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, thenI will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

After I read this, I was convicted to write this verse on the bathroom mirror in my kids bathroom and in my bathroom.  Don’t worry, I used a dry erase marker.  Then I dove deeper into the verse to discover the “backstory.”  In chapter 6, Solomon asked God to make provisions for the people when they sinned.  God answered in chapter 7; with four conditions for forgiveness:

1. humble yourself by admitting your sins
2. pray to God, asking for forgiveness
3. seek God continually, and
4. turn from sinful behavior.

True repentance is more than talk-it’s changed behavior.  I pray that on day 40 this daily habit doesn’t end, but that each of us will continue to pray until God answers our prayer. I know I want this prayer challenge to have established in me and all of us a daily habit so we are still praying on day 41, day 100, and every day after!

Day 1 – Get Ready

He and all his family were devout and God-fearing: he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.  Acts 10:2 God rewards those who earnestly seek him (Hebrew 11:6).

Did you read Acts 10:1-8?   I did.  I pulled out my NIV Life Application Study Bible and opened my Logo’s Bible Software to find this beautiful reminder of why designated prayer time daily is so important.

Acts 10:3 In the course of the practice of Cornelius’s piety, God spoke to him. Cornelius was keeping one of the three traditional Jewish times of prayer, the afternoon hour of 3 p.m., which coincided with the Tamid sacrifice in the temple. God’s agent was an angel who appeared to him in a vision. Frequently in Luke-Acts God used prayer time as the opportunity for leading to new avenues of ministry. Prayer is a time for opening oneself up to God, thus enabling his leading.Visions occur frequently in Acts as a vehicle of divine leading, which illustrates that the major advances in the Christian witness are all under divine direction.⁷³ In no case is that clearer than in the present instance. Cornelius and Peter took no initiative in what transpired. Their mutual visions illustrate that all was totally under God’s direction.  Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, pp. 252–253). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

God spoke to those in the Bible in various ways and he will speak to us too.

• Moses (Exodus 3:1-4) burning bush
• Balaam (Numbers 22:21-30) donkey
• Elijah (1Kings 19:11-14) whisper
• Jeremiah (Jeremiah 13:1-11)

God will talk to us too, in many different ways – through scripture, music, through others, our circumstances, events, a dime and so much more.  We have to be open to hear from God.  It is up to us to listen, to be alert and perceptive.  Every day ask yourself, “What is God trying to tell me?”

Page 19: Anything but Routine – “your life will be anything but routine.” Mark Batterson

Page 20:   Do you get in God’s way like I do?

Don’t try to manufacture your own miracles. Don’t try to answer your own prayers.  Don’t try to do God’s job for Him.  Stay humble.  Stay patient.  Stay focused.  Keep circling.   (Draw the Circle, The 40 Day Prayer Challenge, Mark Batterson)

Heavenly father, I thank you for each of these ladies lives, their families, their journey and their faith.  Lord, I pray that as we journey this challenge together we will be women of prayer, grace and love.  That we will accept one another for who God created us to be, not who we believe we should all be.  That we will learn to leave our need to control everything at the cross.  That we will learn to love without boundaries.  That we will trust you and your timing.  Lord, let us be led by the spirit and not our hurt.  Lord, help us to see the need and to be intentional to carve out this time to be with you daily in prayer.  In your name we pray, Amen.

Pull out your journal… Start writing your prayers and circling them in prayer.