Posts Tagged Lenten

Days 8/ 9 of 40 Day Prayer Journey Seeking to Rise Spiritually

Greetings! I am excited about this 40 Day Prayer Journey. This is the 8th day of Lent on this 40 Day Prayer Journey. The Lenten Season (March 1 to April 9, 2017) is a time of repentance, self-examination, fasting and prayer in preparation for Resurrection Sunday (Easter). You may see the prior posts. Hopefully each of you will join me in this 40 Day Prayer Journey. Step into this forty (40) day prayer journey and adventure of seeking the Lord daily, examining our selves , repenting and praying toward the desires and promises of God to enable us to grow in our spiritual walk. Below are Days 8 and 9.

United prayer can bring powerful results. Pray with purpose, biblical promise and passion. Let’s all continue with one accord in prayer and supplication (Acts 1:14a) during this Lenten season.

Love and pray fervently,
Linda Fegins, The Prayer Leader of Pray, Act &Write

What follows is a suggested format for the journey. You may need to modify it to fit your schedule or medical restrictions. You are encouraged to use a journal or notebook to write your reflections, what the Lord is speaking to you, your prayers and/or prayer requests.

During the Forty Day Prayer Journey it is suggested that you:
1. Fast at least one day per week preferably Wednesday (see information on fasting included in this packet). Alternatively, you can fast a food or activity the entire Lenten season.

  1. Select a Prayer Partner or three(Triplet) to pray together at least once a week as you determine for your schedule.
    3. Daily pray the intercessory daily prayer focus and prayer points for that date. Read the Bible and the scriptures.
    4. Read the scriptures listed in the daily prayer focus. Answer the questions in your journal if there are any for that day and write down your reflections. Meditate on the Word each day.
    5. Make an entry in your journal each day or as led by the Holy Spirit. Make sure you the complete the “Something to Act On” exercise section where it appears from time to time in the daily prayer focus.
    .

40 Day Prayer Journey

DAY 8 – March 8 Love the Lord With All Your Heart

Scriptures: Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Matthew 22: 34-40

Repent: Of not loving God with all your heart, soul and mind; of allowing other things to fill and occupy your life.

Pray:
• Ask God to search your heart and to reveal to you any sin for which you need to seek forgiveness.
• Intercede for your church and the churches in our community to be filled with fresh love for God and to demonstrate the love to others.
• Pray that the love of Christ will compel believers everywhere to share the gospel with others in love.
• Ask God to give you clarity about your purpose.
• Pray for a deeper relationship with Christ through prayer and to help you pray consistently.
• Pray for Youth – Psalm 144:12 – that they will commit themselves to Christ; for moral strength to choose wisely; for older mentors; for friendships with those who are following Jesus, for good relationships and open communication with parents.

Something to Act On: Write down all the ways you can that show the Lord that you love Him with all your heart.

DAY 9 – March 9 Seek the Lord With All Our Heart

Scriptures: Deut. 4:39-40; Heb. 11:6

Repent: Of not consistently seeking after the Lord to know Him, His ways, and His will. Repent of seeking after the ways and approval of man.

Pray:
• Ask God to search your heart and to reveal to you any sin for which you need to seek forgiveness.
• Intercede for family members, friends and neighbors that they may began to seek to know God and have a desire to walk and talk with Him.
• Pray for a deeper relationship with Christ through prayer and to help you pray consistently.
• Pray for Families Gen. 28:14 – For God centered relationships among family members; for families broken by divorce to be healed; that Christ’s forgiveness would occur among family members; that parents will teach their children in God’s ways of living and that families would pray together.
• Pray for the community and our city to turn from wicked ways and to seek the Lord
• Pray for those who are unemployed and those burdened by debt.

Something to Act On: Write down what you want to lay aside and to stop doing. Now write what spiritual things you want to rise toward thinking and walking in to please God and to be more like Jesus.

Linda Fegins, The Prayer Leader ldfaygo@gmail.com

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Day 22 Seek Forgiveness 40 Day Prayer Journey

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DAY 22 – March 6- Pursing Forgiveness and Humility
40 Day Prayer Journey to Life Transformation

The initial week of the Lenten season we were praying about our personal relationship with the Lord. We focused on what should be our primary pursuit of loving the Lord with all heart. The second week we focused on our relationship with our family relationships and the third week our relationship with those in the body of Christ. On Day 21 we focused on repentance and reconciliation in broken relations in our families and with friends and loved ones and between and among congregations. Today we focus on forgiveness among family members, friends and church members and congregations.

Scriptures: Matthew 6:14-15; 18:1-35; Ephesians 4:25-32; Colossians 3:12-17

Repent: Of not forgiving those who have sinned against us; of walking in pride, superiority, or opposition to others in our family, community and in the body of Christ; of not walking in the fruit of the Spirit such as humility, kindness, meekness, longsuffering or forgiveness toward one another; of failing to follow God’s Word to submit and to forgive; of of_______________________________ (fill in the blank).

Action: Meditate, pray, and write down other areas of which to repent and for persons and situations that God places on your heart to pray about or to take action. Forgive.

Pray:

• Repent for the times you have been unforgiving, judgmental, and stubborn
• Ask for forgiveness and for the mind and heart to tear down the wall of division among family members, communities and various congregations and Christian leaders.
• Ask God to stir a continual heart of repentance in you.
• Pray for families to practice forgiveness, demonstrating the amazing grace we each have received in Jesus Christ our Lord.
• Pray for the church to practice forgiveness, demonstrating the amazing grace we each have received in Jesus Christ our Lord.
• Pray for true humility to be evident in the family and community.
• Pray for true humility and love to exist in the church and that the leaders of the church will walk in true humility and a deep reverence for the Lord.
• .

Linda Fegins ldfaygo@aol.com

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“A Time of Repentance” by Linda Fegins

The Lenten Season (February 22 to April 7) is a time of repentance, self-examination, fasting and prayer in preparation for Resurrection Sunday (Easter). “Renewing our sense of who we really are before God is the core of the Lenten experience”. (Pastor Orville K.Littlejohn, my Pastor, “Our Focus for Ash Wednesday”). So today seek God with a repentant heart (See Joel 2: 12-24) and let us honestly search our hearts (Psalm 139:23-24). Here is an example of a prayer of repentance to help you get started in initating self-examination , prayer and a spirit of repentance. Then we will examine what is repentance and why it is important to our prayer lives and our relationship with God.

A Prayer of Repentance
Lord, I come humbly before You and ask you to cleanse my heart of my every sin. “Have mercy on me O, Lord according to your loving kindness and blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly of my iniquity and cleanse me of all of my sin. (Psalm 51:1-2) Lord create in me a clean heart. Please Lord renew a right spirit within me (Psalm 51:10-11). Forgive me for thoughts I have had, words I have spoken and things that I have done that are not pleasing in your sight and do not glorify you. Father, forgive me I pray for my sins of_______(state them)________________________. I confess it is a sin and truly repent of these acts, words and thoughts. ( 1 John 1:9; Psalm 32:5 Proverbs 28:13, Psalm 51:6, 10). Lord search the inwards hidden places of my heart and reveal my sin to me that I may not see. (Psalm 139: 23-24). I seek to repent of everything that You show me Lord. I confess my sins to you in the full realization that you are faithful and just to forgive me of all my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness.( 1John 1:9) I know that my sins are against You and You only. Grant me a broken, willing spirit and a contrite heart so I can offer it to You (Psalm 51:1-4, Psalm. 51:12, Psalm 51:17).

Thank you Father. I desire to obey your commandments and statutes. I choose to stop my sinful ways and to turn to walk upright. Help me, Lord God to bring forth fruits that are worthy of repentance (Luke 3:8). Lord I want to live a righteous, pure and holy life through your power (Colossians 1:11). I am determined to walk in the Spirit and in your ways and walk away from my sins by the power of the Holy Ghost. Grant me a godly sorrow that is not just full of regret because of the consequences of sin but sorrow that leads to true repentance (2 Corinthians 7:9-10). Lord give me a tender heart that is sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit and the conviction of sin. Holy Spirit, thank You for convicting me of my sin. Forgive me for the ways I’ve ignored Your voice and quenched and grieved You. (John 16:8; Ephesians. 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19; Romans. 8:1-2). Lord I praise you, Father, for your goodness that leads to repentance (Romans 2:4). Lord thank you for restoring my soul so that the times of refreshing my come (Acts 3:19). Amen.

It is important to note that a repentant heart is not limited to a special season or time of the year. If we want to have effective prayer lives which bring forth life transformation and healing of the land, repentance must become a part of our lifestyle. Despite the benefits of repentance, we are resistant to the thought of repentance. Repentance isn’t a popular word. Our culture encourages us to do whatever we want when we want. TV, music videos and movies very rarely show the consequences of our sins.

It is one thing to know that you have done something that is wrong . But it is another to be saddened and sorrowful about your actions and determine that you will turn away from that sin and never do the act again. To repent “I” or “we” must come to terms with and acknowledge that we have sinned and then turn away from such sinful behavior and be reconciled back to our loving Lord. Therefore, repentance is a change of mind that involves both a turning from sin and turning to God. Christ began his ministry with a call to repentance. (Mathew. 4:17). We must examine every attitude, every motive, every action and ever word of evil. Repentance means that you are deeply godly sorrowful and hurt about what you have done unto the Lord and that you are determined to do all that you can not to commit that sin again. “Repentance means we are sorry about our sin to the point of grief, and we have turned and walked away from it”. Stormie Omartian, “The Power of a Praying Woman” p. 40, Harvest House Publishers,(2002).

Charles Spurgeon writes:
Repentance is a discovery of the evil of sin, a mourning that we have committed it, a resolution to forsake it. It is, in fact, a change of mind of a very deep and practical character, which makes the man love what once he hated, and hate what once he loved.
J. I. Packer writes:
Repentance means turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God, and as our knowledge grows at these three points so our practice of repentance has to be enlarged.

Before we can truly repent we must admit our sins and tell them to God. Confession means we recognize we have done wrong and admit it. We cannot hide from God no matter how we try. God knows what “I” have done and wants “me and you” to know and admit in detail what “I” have done. Dick Eastman, in “The Hour That Changes the World”, says, “Confession is a heartfelt recognition of what we are. It is important to God because it indicates that we take seriously our mistakes and failures. Of course, God does not ask us to confess our sins because He needs to know we have sinned, but because He knows that we need to know we have sinned”. Dick Eastman, “The Hour That Changes the World”,p.42 , Baker Book House, (1999). If we do not confess our sins one consequence is that our prayer life will suffer as God will not hear our prayers if we have iniquity in our hearts (Psalm 66:18).

God offers many wonderful results of repentance, including healing, restoring, freedom, joy and reconciliation. In Acts 3:19 the call to repentance invites you to “repent, then turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord”.

Action Steps:
1. During the Lenten season I want to encourage you to join this or a 40 day Prayer Journey even if you are beginning at day 7 or whatever day. Just begin where you are. Determine to spend quality time with the Lover(God) of your soul every day. Decide to start out with half an hour and increase it slowly. Be diligent and be faithful. We can never grow or develop an intimate relationship with God unless we spend quality time with Him.
2. Confess any sin you may be guilty of against man and God. Ask God to search you and reveal any unconfessed sin.
3. Say or write a prayer of repentance out of your heart. Above is an example of a prayer of repentance. Your prayer need not be perfect, but sincere, sorrowful and heartfelt.
4. Have a journal. God has so much to speak into your life. It may not happen overnight if you haven’t been praying on a consistent basis. But remember He is right there. Don’t give up.
5. Leave a prayer request.
6. Listen to a corporate Prayer of Repentance and other prayers by Evangelist Rita Green and Missionary Minetta Hare on blogtalk radio “The New Voice”.”A Time to Pray” Click on http://tobtr.com/s/2822019 .

Linda Fegins, “The Prayer Leader” has served as Prayer Coordinator for over 13 years( later Director over the Prayer Minstry) for the Lydia Circle Christian Buisness and Professional Women. As part of the Lydia Circle she has lead over 8 prayer boot camps, and has lead prayer services and workshops in the Bahamas and in South Africa and was on the prayer team of two medical missions trips to Jamaica. She is also a member of the National Church Prayer Leaders Network and serves as the Prayer Leader of the Intercessory Prayer Team Ministry at her church.

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