The Forty-Day Word Fast for Lent

Each year since I published this first book, The Forty-Day Word Fast, momentum has built for people to fast hurting words for Lent. Many, many individuals, Bible study groups, Sunday School classes and others are using The Forty-Day Word Fast for Lent. 


What is Lent? Lent is the six weeks leading up to Easter. It’s one of the most critical times of the year for many Christians around the world, particularly those within the Anglican, Catholic, and Orthodox traditions, held at a similar level of importance to Advent – the build-up to Christmas.
While Advent is a celebration and a time of great anticipation, Lent is a time of solemn observance and preparation for the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus at Easter. From its start on Ash Wednesday until its conclusion on Easter Sunday, Lent has been a traditional time for fasting or giving something up or abstinence. Just as we carefully prepare for events in our personal lives, like a wedding or birthday, or commencement, Lent invites us to make our minds and hearts ready for remembering Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.


When does Lent start? This year February 26-April 11.Because Lent follows the liturgical calendar, the exact date that Lent falls each year changes. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is always held 46 days (40 fasting days and 6 Sundays) before Easter Sunday.


What do Christians do during Lent? A few years ago, Pope Francis made a list of things for people to do for Lent. At the top of his list was for people to fast hurting words. These days, Christians around the world observe Lent in many ways. Many from more orthodox and traditional denominations will still observe the fast strictly, beginning with the wearing of ashes on Ash Wednesday and abstinence of meat, fish, eggs, and fats until Easter Sunday.Others will choose to give up just one item for Lent, more commonly a ‘luxury’ such as chocolate, meat, or alcohol. It is also becoming increasingly common for people to give up other things to refocus their faith during this time, such as watching TV, going to the gym, even social media.

Take The Forty-Day Word Fast this year for Lent. 
“Fast hurting words and say kind words instead.” Pope St. Francis for Lent

2.6. 2020 Morning Prayers and Teaching

I give Thee thanks today for This Thy Greatest gift.

For my Lord’s days on earth:

For the record of His deeds of love:

For the words He spoke for my guidance:

For His obedience unto death:

For the presence of His Holy Spirit with me now.

Grant the remembrance of the Blessed Life that was lived out on this common earth.

His eagerness to minister:

His sympathy with suffering:

His bravery in facing His own suffering:

His meekness:

His simplicity:

His serenity of spirit:

His reliance on Thee.

Andrew Murray Day 3

Pray to thy Father, which is in secret

Or Alone with God

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee.

MATTHEW 6:6

After Jesus had called His first disciples, He gave them their first public teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. He there expounded to them the kingdom of God, its laws and its life. In that kingdom God is not only Kind, but Father; He not only gives all, but is Himself all.

Moses gave neither command nor regulation with regard to prayer: even the prophets say little directly of the duty of prayer; it is Christ who teaches to pray. 

And the first thing the Lord teaches His disciples is that they must have a secret place for prayer; every one must have some solitary spot where he can be alone with his God. He has already taught us at Samaria that worship is no longer confined to times and places; that worship, spiritual true worship, is a thing of the spirit and the life; the whole man must in his whole life be worship in spirit and truth. And yet He wants each one to choose for himself the fixed spot where He can daily meet him. That inner chamber, that solitary place is Jesus’ schoolroom.

A teacher is always anxious that his schoolroom should be bright and attractive, filled with the light and air of heaven, a place where pupils long to come, and love to stay. In His first words on prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus seeks to set the inner chamber before us in its most attractive light. The first thing in closet-prayer is: I must meet my Father. The light that shines in the closet must be: the light of the Father’s countenance. 

Pray to the Father which is in secret. To the man who withdraws himself from all that is of the world and man, and prepares to wait upon God alone, the Father will reveal Himself. As he forsakes and gives up and shuts out the world, and the life of the world and surrenders himself to be led of Christ into the secret of God’s presence, the light of the Father’s love will rise upon him. And so we are taught, at the very outset of our search after the secret of effectual prayer, to remember that it is in the inner chamber, where we are alone with the Father, that we shall learn to pray aright.

#53 of top 100 Books Read

#53 on top 100 Books list
Touching the Invisible by Norman Grubb

Who was Norman Grubb? Author of Rees Howell, Intercessor and other great works. He founded the Inter-Varsity Fellowship.

While recovering from his bullet wound in 1917 from the war, Grubb was handed a tract about the Heart of Africa Mission and the work of C.T. Studd in the Belgian Congo. After reading this tract he felt a calling to join Studd in his missionary activities.

Before setting out for Africa, however, Grubb studied for a while at Cambridge, where he had the vision for the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions (IVF) (now the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship) whose primary goal was the sharing of the Christian message with other students.

In 1920 the Grubb’s left for the Congo. They spent ten years there, working with C.T. Studd in evangelizing the Africans. While there he translated the New Testament into Bangala.[ He was also struck by the words of Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth within me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” This verse was to become central to his philosophy. The kernel of his Christian belief was Jesus Christ’s teaching that He is the vine and we are the branches (John 15), and that Christians are new creations in Him and therefore exist in union with him.

Before C.T. Studd’s death in 1931 Norman and Pauline returned to England where they ran the mission from its London headquarters. In the book Samuel Rees Howells: A Life of Intercession, Norman explains what happened when C.T. Studd died: “When C.T. Studd died in 1931 we were in a helpless condition. That month we had thirty-five missionaries and we had one pound a week for that month. That was all we had! People said to us, ‘You’d better give up. Your founder is dead, the mission is so weak, give up.’ But we learned, mainly through Rees Howells, to change our whole attitude and the Lord told us not to give up. The Lord talked to us about going to the world and we laughed. Here we were two missionaries at home, thirty-five starving missionaries on the field and the Lord is speaking to us about going to the world! How does anything get done? By faith of course! Faith is the ability, inspired by the Spirit, to believe something offered to you. It isn’t I doing it, it is Him doing it.”

After Studd’s death in 1931, it was learned that he had left a letter appointing Grubb as president of the ministry he had founded, World Evangelisation Crusade (W.E.C., WEC International), in place of himself. Grubb, however, thought it would be better to be called secretary instead. W.E.C. grew from one mission field with 35 workers to a worldwide mission operating in over 40 fields with thousands of workers from around the world, all living according to the principle that all needs will be supplied by God with no appeals to man. The mission continues to this day under the name of Worldwide Evangelization for Christ.

2.5. 2020 Morning Prayer and Teaching

God of rescue and restoration, thank Your for Your great and beautiful mission in the world. Here I am, Lord: fill me with Your Spirit and send me.

Day 2 Andrew Murray The True Worshippers

“The hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in the spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).

           The Father seeks worshippers. True worship is that which is in spirit and truth. One of our first lessons in the school of prayer must be to understand what it is to pray in spirit and in truth and to know how we can attain it.

           To the woman of Samaria, our Lord spoke of a threefold worship. First is the ignorant worship of the Samarians: “that which ye know not.” Second is the intelligent worship of the Jew, having the true knowledge of God: “We worship that which He has come to introduce is third: “The hour is coming, and is now when the true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and truth.”

           Among Christians, one still finds the three classes of worshippers. Some, in their ignorance, hardly know what they’re asking for. The pray earnestly, but receive little. There are others having more correct knowledge who try to pray with all their minds and hearts. They often pray most earnestly and yet do not attain the full blessedness of worship in spirit and truth. It is into the third class we must ask our Lord Jesus to take us. He must teach us how to worship in spirit and truth. This alone is spiritual worship; this makes us the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. In prayer, everything will depend on our understanding and practicing worship in spirit and truth.

           How much Christianity suffers from being confined to certain times and places! A man who seeks to pray earnestly only in the church or in the prayer closet spends the greater part of his time in a sprit entirely at variance with that in which he prayed. His worship was the work of a fixed place or hour, not of his whole being. God is a Spirit. What He is, He is always and in truth. Our worship must be the same: It must be the spirit of our life.

           Let our attitude in prayer be what Christ’s words have taught us. Let there be the sincere confession of our inability to bring God the worship that is pleasing to Him, the childlike teachableness that waits for Him to instruct us, and the simple faith that yields itself to the breathing of the Spirit. Above all, let us hold on tightly to this blessed reality: The secret of prayer in spirit and truth is in the knowledge of the fatherhood of God, the revelation of His infinite Fatherliness in our hearts, and the faith in His infinite love of us as His children. This is the new and living way Christ opened up for us. To have Christ the Son, and the Spirit of the Son, dwelling within us and revealing the Father makes us true, spiritual worshippers.

                                                                       Andrew Murray

2.4. 2020 Morning PRAYER AND TEACHING

Almighty and eternal God, I praise Thee for the knocking at my heart’s door that warns me of Thy waiting presence. 

I bless Thee for Thy hand upon my life.

God of welcome, You invite me into Your family. I sit at Your table and savor Your Word to me. Help me receive all the nourishment. You have for me today.

DAY 1 ON PRAYER by ANDREW MURRAY

The Call of Intercession

           Of all the traits of a life like Christ, there is none higher and more glorious than conformity to Him in the work that now engages Him without ceasing in the Father’s presence: His all-powerful intercession. The more we abide in Him and grow to be like Him, the more His priestly life will work in us. Our lives will become what His is: a life that continuously prays for men.

           The place and power of intercession in the Christian life are too little understood. As long as we view prayer only as the means of maintaining our own Christian lives, we will not fully understand what it is supposed to be. But, when we learn to regard it as the highest part of work entrusted to us – the root and strength of all other work – we will see that there is nothing we need to study and practice more than the art of praying.

           The Father waits to hear every prayer of faith. He wants to give us whatever we ask for in Jesus’ name. God intends prayer to have an answer, and no one has fully conceived what God will do for the child who believes that his prayer will be heard. God hears prayer.

           Many complain that they don’t have the power to pray in faith an effective prayer that accomplishes much. The message I want to give them is that the blessed Jesus is waiting and longing to teach them this.

           May God open our eyes to understand the holy ministry of intercession to which, as His royal priesthood, we have been set apart. May He give us a large and strong heart to believe what mighty influence our prayers can exert. And may all fear of our being able to fulfill our vocation vanish as we see Jesus, living eternally to pray, living in us to pray, and guaranteeing the results of our prayer life.

                                                                                   Andrew Murray

2.3. 2020 Morning Prayer Monday

This day, O Lord–
give me courtesy:
give me meekness of bearing, with the decision of character:
give me longsuffering:
give me charity:
give me sincerity of speech:
give me diligence in my allotted task:

Grant me the grace to be worthy to be Your ambassador.

How to Engage the Scripture in Prayer (Bonhoeffer)

The time of meditation (prayer) {on scripture} does not let us down into the void and abyss of loneliness; it lets us be alone with the Word. And in so doing it gives us solid ground on which to stand and clear directions as to the steps we must take.

In our meditation we ponder the chosen text on the strength of the promise that it has something utterly personal to say to us for this day and for our Christian life, that it is not only God’s Word for the Church, but also God’s Word for us individually. We expose ourselves to the specific word until it addresses us personally…We read God’s Word as God’s Word for us.

Bonhoeffer

#54 Top 100 Books Read The Necessity of Prayer E.M. Bounds

#54 Top 100 Books The Necessity of Prayer E.M. Bounds

Consider the life of E.M. Bounds: The last seventeen years of his life he rose at 4:00 a.m. to pray daily for the cares of the world that were on his heart. He was a renowned lawyer at age 24, who then was called by the Lord. He volunteered as a chaplain in the Civil War and was held as a prisoner of war twice, one time for 1-½ years. He died in 1913 relatively unknown.

Since the apostles, no man besides E.M. Bounds has left such a rich inheritance of research and teaching into the life of prayer. Prayer was as natural to him as breathing. He made prayer first and foremost in his life because he knew it as the strongest link between man and God. IN THE TIME OF E.M. BOUNDS HUMAN, WEAKNESS, THROUGH PRAYER, COULD ACCESS THE POWER OF THE OVERCOMING SON OF GOD, JESUS CHRIST. THE SAME IS TRUE TO THIS DAY!

2.2. 2020 Morning Prayers Sunday–The Sabbath

Sabbath Blessing (24/7)

May this day bring Sabbath rest to my heart and home.

May God’s image in me be restored, and my imagination in God be re-storied.

May the gravity of material things be lightened, and the relativity of time slow down.

May I know grace to embrace my own finite smallness in the arms of God’s infinite greatness.

May God’s Word feed me and His Spirit lead me into the week and into the life to come.

Prayer for today:

O God, my Creator, and Redeemer, I may not go forth today except Thou dost accompany me with Thy Blessing.

Let me put back into Thine hand all that Thou hast given me, rededicating to Thy service all the power of my mind and body, all my worldly goods, all my influence with other men. 

O blessed Jesus, who didst use Thine own most precious life for the redemption of Thy Human brethren, give me grace today to follow Thee. 

Raise Your Hand If You Want Correction.

Raise Your Hand If You Want Correction!

Wouldn’t you love it if people joyfully received correction when they missed the mark in one area of their life? What a difference it would make in the culture of any Christian fellowship Wow!

I recently received a very pointed rebuke. It has set me to ponder why I don’t get more of corrections in life. Seriously, it is not because I don’t need correction on a regular basis.

Who likes correction, rebuke, reproof, or to be evaluated?  You are at work and make the announcement, “I’ll be setting up evaluations this week; who wants to be first?” Do the hands just shoot up all over the place?

It has been my mantra all my professional life, “You tell everything about a person by the way they receive correction.” Try this on for size, When was the last time you were corrected by someone, anyone? What was your reaction?

We are so reticent today to give people correction. Our culture has this “hypersensitivity to offense” thing going on. Everyone treads so lightly; we don’t dare want to offend anyone. And, who am I to give a word of correction to a friend, colleague, Christian brother or anyone close? It’s my observation that this sensitivity to potential offense has bled into the management style of most pastors and Christian leaders.

Here’s the problem. We don’t see correction, reproof, or rebuke in the proper light. We need “spiritual eyes” to see the beauty of it. When rebuke comes, it is a rare opportunity to move up in the Lord. It is advancement. It is God’s plan, from His heart, His method for impacting our generations to follow. It is His way to call people into their destiny and completion (Heb. 7:25) Yes; it is that pervasive and poignant to our life in Christ.

Can you see correction as an encouragement? Truth is, it should be a great encouragement to any son or daughter of the Lord. He is the author of correction. It flows out of His heart with love and compassion. It is His pathway for us. “All the paths of the Lord are loving-kindness and truth” (Ps. 25:10).

“For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching is light; and reproofs for discipline are the way of life” (Proverbs 6:23).

“He is one the path of life who heeds instruction, but he who forsakes reproof goes astray” (Proverbs 10:17).

2.1 2020 Morning Prayer Friday

Eternal Father of my soul, let my first thought today be of Thee, let my first impulse be to worship Thee, my first speech be Thy name, let my first action be to kneel before Thee in prayer.

For Thy perfect wisdom and perfect goodness;
For love wherewith Thou lovest humankind;
For the love wherewith thou lovest me;
For the great and mysterious opportunity of my life;
For the indwelling of Thy Holy Spirit in my hear;
for the sevenfold gifts of Thy Spirit.

Yet let me not, when this morning prayer is said, think my worship has ended and spent the day in forgetfulness of Thee.

Keep me chase in thought;
Keep me temperate and truthful in speech;
Keep me humble in the estimation of myself;
Keep me faithful and diligent in work;
Keep me loyal to every hallowed memory;
Keep me mindful of my destiny as a child.