40 Day Lenten Challenge

Are you ready for a challenge? As you might or might know, the church season of Lent begins today. Most of us are somewhat familiar with it because the media makes a huge deal out of "Fat Tuesday." Lent has been a season of preparation for Easter in the church year. It generally is thought of as a time to sacrifice something (usually food) in self-denial.



This week we are beginning a brand new series called EXTREME MAKEOVER: HEART EDITION. The focus of this series is around the "framework" that Jesus taught for prayer in the well-known Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6. We'll break it down, phrase by phrase, to discern how our own lives of prayer can grow during this season of the year.



Now here's the challenge. We're actually going to end each week with a challenge for you to "pray" at least 5 minutes a day about that particular theme or concept. That would amount to 35 minutes per week in time alone with God talking about one thing. Most of us would think, "No big deal. Of course, I spend 5 minutes a day praying about one thing."

One time I tried to actually time this and discovered that it was more like 5 seconds. For instance, if you tried to pray 5 minutes a day about someone you need to forgive (forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us...), you might discover that the 5 whole minutes is more like 5 seconds as I did.



It takes some work....and sacrifice...to pray 5 minutes per day about one thing. To help you along, we're recommending you purchase a kitchen timer and actually set it before beginning. If you can't afford a new timer, pray in the kitchen and use the stove timer. Either way, I hope you will take the challenge.



Take the plunge.....you won't regret it. What is the worst that can happen? You fall in love with the Living God? Wouldn't that be awesome!



Brad