40 Days of Fasting & Prayer--Day 40

That God’s presence would INVADE my plans

(Proverbs 16)

Coming into this time of focused spiritual discipline I had a plan.  I had a plan.  My plan was to be perceived as some kind of spiritual giant (that’s too funny), butter God up and get Him to do something really cool for me and the church, and to hear the audible voice of God pointing me in the right direction for success and gain.

I’m not a total fool.  I would never have articulated my plan in those words going into this time.  In truth, the past 40 days has been a pretty humbling experiencing in many different ways.  My motivation wasn’t completely screwed up but I can admit that my plan, though not knowingly conceived in such selfish terms as described above, had ulterior motives of a nature that didn’t match what I convinced myself of.  What I said with my mouth and what I wanted in my heart were two different plans.  In short, my plan was not my plan.

Does that sound pretty awful?  It does to me and it causes me nausea whenever I see my plan for what it is.  Is this really any different than most of the grand plans that we make for God’s kingdom?  We come up with great ideas and great pursuits.  We even go a step further and develop those ideas laced with some spiritual language.  We then take a big imaginary stamp to it and call it God’s plan.

I have certainty that God’s plan was for us to fast and pray.  I have less certainty about the purposes of it.  This fast has been a journey of having my blinders removed in a lot of different areas of my life.  This is a journey that hasn’t been entirely pleasant but has had great rewards.  The greatest reward is perhaps having clearer perspective.  I have a better discernment about the chasm between my plan and God’s plan.

Today marks the end of an experience that has produced something that wasn’t originally in my plan…repentance.  I wonder—had I known this going in, would I have developed a different plan?  Here it is, day 40 and I’m talking about repentance?  Shouldn’t that have happened on day one maybe? 

We must walk in repentance as we embrace His direction for us on a daily basis.  We don’t like to come back and talk about repentance very often because it seems so ground level as it relates to the magnitude of God’s plan.  It isn’t ground-level foundational though.  It is the plumbing and wiring (that’ll preach!) throughout the entire blueprint of God’s huge skyscraper plan for us.  Fortunately, God’s ways are not my ways.  God’s plans are not my plans...but they can be!

“As I finish this fast today, I pray protection over the plans that You have for me from this point forward.  I believe that You have spoken to me, invaded my prayer life and set my feet upon a new path.  May my mind continue to be upon You as I plan out my heart response to these 40 days.”