40 Day Journey Begins!

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I’m really excited that many people have told me that they want to commit to journaling for 40 days with us! I know God will bless the time we commit to being with Him.

We’ve decided to allow as much flexibility as possible. We encourage you to find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed then:

Pray – Ask God to quiet your mind of any worries or tasks that have to be done. Ask Him to be with you and to speak with you. “Come into His presence”
Scripture – God often talks through His scripture and He never talks contrary to it! You may want to follow a Bible plan or read the scripture for the coming Sunday. We have some recommendations below but this is entirely up to you.
Meditate / Journal – You may find yourself stopping midway through your Bible reading because a phrase or image struck you. Write it down; why did it resonate with you? Is there something going on in your life or a desire of your heart that you want to share with God?

Resources:

Divine Hours – This is my favorite resource because almost every word is scripture with a few hymns mixed it. Compiled by Phyllis Tickle and it can be found on-line for free here: http://www.explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/hours.php
Daily Office Lectionary – From the ESV: http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/bcp/2012-11-11/

One final thing to remember, our goal isn’t to finish a book, or read a lot of scripture in these 40 days although we may do some of both. It is to hear God and to ‘chase after Him’. To become more in tune with His voice and respond to His prompting.

Another Example:

We hope to have a few people share a little of their journaling over these 40 days. As, I’ve been doing through Twitter and this blog, I thought I would share another good example. Pastor Ronnie in this blog shows that it doesn’t have to be complex. He simply writes a thought, a scripture, and a prayer. Take a look here: http://blog.sdrock.com/pastors/2012/06/11/listening-to-his-voice-a-journal-63-69/

Chasing After You

Someone shared this video with me recently and I think it is perfect for us, as we embark on ‘chasing after God’.

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Special Note for Community Bible Church members:

In Sunday’s Sermon, we saw from Psalm 55 some healthy ways of dealing with our negative emotions such as anger, fear, anxiety, sadness, depression. If you missed the sermon, you can watch it here: http://cbcnw.sermon.tv/

You can find scripture readings for each day of the week in the bulletin. Here are some questions for you to consider as you journal this week:

What stood out to you? Have you experienced any negative emotions lately? How did you deal with them? Did you pay attention to them? Can you pay attention to them now? What might God be trying to teach you about yourself or Him through them?

God Bless!

40 Day Journey Begins by Westchester Men’s Ministry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at https://nymensministry.com/2012/11/09/40-day-journey-begins/.