Forty-Day Challenge
Have you ever noticed the significance of the number forty in Scripture? Moses worked as a shepherd forty years before God called him to lead the Israelites from captivity. Moses was atop Mount Sinai forty days receiving the covenant God made with the Israelites after redeeming them from bondage. God led His people in the wilderness for forty years of testing before entering the Promised Land. And Jesus was tested in the wilderness forty days before beginning His public ministry.
As you can see, it’s not only the number forty that’s significant, but the events that this number helped to define. Each event is a period of passage and transition—in the unfolding of God’s gracious and redemptive activity.
Are you in a period of passage? We’re all living through seasons of life if not specific, shorter transitional phrases in life. It’s the way God designed it. Every end is a new beginning. Make the most of it.
My 40-Day Challenge To You
Excerpted from "Healing Is A Choice" by Steve Arterburn
If you accept this challenge, I believe it could change your life forever. I believe it will implant in your heart and soul the words you need to persevere on the path to healing. I believe it can change the way you think about yourself and the way you think about life. It will take less than five minutes a day, but it could change the rest of your day. Throughout Scripture forty days pops up over and over again. It is significant to me that Jesus fasted and prayed for forty days and forty nights. So I am going to ask you to start your day, each day, for forty days by reading the following words out loud in some quiet corner of your world:
Opening Prayer:
Lord, I am broken and hurting due to the brokenness of others and mistakes of my own. Please use Your powers to heal me and give me courage to make the choices I need to make to allow Your healing in my life. Forgive me for standing in Your way of healing for me. Thank You for putting to an end my past’s hold upon my life, and for allowing my future to begin right now in this moment with You.
Affirmation:
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Taken from The Life Recovery Devotional: Thirty Meditations from Scripture for Each Step in Recovery by Stephen Arterburn and David Stoop. Copyright © 1991 by Stephen Arterburn and David Stoop. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
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