Lent: My 40/40/40 Prayer Pact

Although this whole Lent deal is far from a new season to me, I somehow fail to properly plan until Ash Wednesday springs upon me in its dusty, stark, post-Mardi-Gras-glitz-and-sugar-hangover-way. This year I am working on being more intentional about starting my Lent with a sense of readiness. Nevermind the fact that an assortment of ideas and distractions ambush my brain while I sit at my desk attempting to do my business tax prep for my CPA, but this idea I knew was inspired…

But let me interrupt this inspiration banter with: This is your 9 DAYS until Lent starts countdown!

Now back to what the Spirit stirred up. This isn’t a give up chocolate kind of Lenten offering (and yes I love chocolate). I wanted to dig deeper in prayer, giving people the assurance that they were specifically being prayed for, their intentions, by name, during this Lent.

So, I am starting a LENTEN PRAYER PACT 40 for 40 in 40:

40 prayer intentions

For 40 people

In 40 days

Each of 40 days of Lent will be dedicated to one of the 40 specific prayer intentions from 40 different people. Whether you are a friend, or I have never met you, that makes no difference – sign up and you are on my 40/40/40 list this Lent and I will commit to praying for you. Note, I will never share or publish your prayer intentions, unless you want me to and give me express permission.

WHAT IS THE 40/40/40 LENT PRAYER PACT?

Over 40 days, I will be devoting a day to prayer for each participant and your prayer intention during my Lenten journey. A pact is defined as a formal agreement between individuals or parties, and I formally agree to pray for 40 people’s intentions over 40 days.

WHY DID YOU CREATE THE PACT?

There is such a power and gift in intercessory prayer. Offering prayers on the behalf of others is also a way to be focused on the needs of others. It reaps graces for those in need. My hope is that the 40/40/40 will help me focus on others more, create a positive prayer movement, and help others along their Lenten journey.

WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO HAVE YOU PRAY FOR ME?

If you’d like to be included on my 40/40/40, fill out the form below. The first 40 I will commit to pray for you by name, lifting up you intention – simple. If you are late signing up and the list is full (there are only 40 spaces after all) I may be able to coerce my husband to take you on 🙂 Or, I would encourage you to do the prayer pact with your friends and relatives yourself.

SO, HOW DO I START MY OWN 40/40/40 LENTEN PRAYER PACT?

1. Easiest way to compile your list is to create a sign up form, like the Google form I am using below. For help, here’s a YouTube Lynda.com tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IxFeVXBwaQ, then embed it or share it with others.

2. Share information (you have permission to use my verbiage and graphics in this post) on the prayer pact with your friends and family. Share though email, Social Media, and a blog if you have one. You can use my 40/40/40 Graphic too.

3. Begin your prayer challenge on February 18, 2015 (Ash Wednesday) and continue through April 4, Holy Saturday. To keep yourself on track, your participant signups through Google forms can be compiled in a Google document. Next just print out and either keep your list with your Bible, tape to your mirror, or wherever/however you’ll remember to pray for your 40 participants.

4. This takes bit of coordination, but how nice if you take the time to remind your participants on the day that you’re praying for them. That could be an email, text, post-it note, Facebook message/Tweet/Snapchat/whatevs, or something to say, “I’m praying for you on this day of the 40/40/40 challenge” or send them my Ephesians graphic at the bottom.

It’s a pretty simple concept, but I am excited to invite 40 other people along on my Lenten journey through praying for your intentions.

UPDATE: FEBRUARY 13th, I have my 40/40 for my 40 already signed up, so my form is no longer accepting submissions, sorry! 

FREE DOWNLOAD – LENTEN PRAYER PACT CALENDAR!
Click link below to download & print. Fill in the names of your participants on each of the 40 days and hang in a good reminder spot!

Lenten Calendar 2015

NEED TO GET PEOPLE TO PRAY FOR? USE THIS GRAPHIC IN YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA WITH A LINK TO YOUR SIGN-UP FORM:

HERE’S A FACEBOOK COVER TO USE:

HERE’S A TWITTER COVER TO USE:

LET PEOPLE KNOW YOU’RE PRAYING FOR THEM. HERE’S A “PRAYING FOR YOU” GRAPHIC YOU CAN EMAIL/TEXT/SHARE WITH THEM:

Invite other to join the prayer pact for their Lent.

Finally, you can do something special like this for your participants to remind them of your prayers during the next 40 days:

 

 

The Purpose of the Desert

Our journey has begun, one that will persist for forty days and forty nights.  This journey does not consist of trekking out into a foreign land, but rather voyaging inward – setting out upon the familiar soil of our hearts.  A critically acclaimed expert, no one is more qualified than our Guide to lead this expedition: “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning.” This time exists so that we, as the Church, can unite ourselves during Lent to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.

Os Hillman has done a beautiful meditation on the The Purpose of the Desert. As it has done for me, I hope that it will help you along your journey:

Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. – Hosea 2:14

If you have an important message to convey to someone, what is the best means of getting the message through?  Have you ever tried to talk with someone who was so busy you could not get him to hear you?  Distractions prevent us from giving our undivided attention to the messenger.  So too, God has His way of taking us aside to get our undivided attention.  For Paul, it was Arabia for three years; for Moses, it was forty years in the desert; for Joseph, it was thirteen years in Egypt; for David, it was many years of fleeing from King Saul.

God knows the stubborn human heart.  He knows that if He is to accomplish His deepest work, He must take us into the desert in order to give us the privilege to be used in His kingdom.  In the desert God changes us and removes things that hinder us.  He forces us to draw deep upon His grace.  The desert is only a season in our life.  When He has accomplished what He wants in our lives in the desert, He will bring us out. He has given us a mission to fulfill that can only be fulfilled after we have spent adequate time in preparation in the desert.  Fear not the desert, for it is here you will hear God’s voice like never before.  It is here you become His bride.  It is here you will have the idols of your life removed. It is here you begin to experience the reality of a living God like never before.  Someone once said, ‘God uses enlarged trials to produce enlarged saints so He can put them in enlarged places!’

He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me. – 2 Samuel 22:20