Day 40 of our 40 Day Experience of GOD

 

 

Forty seems adequate.

• Forty days of temptation was enough for Jesus to reject Satan's alternatives to GOD's Plan.
       Luke 4:1-2b  -  Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days.
  
  
• Forty days and nights of rain was enough rain. 
       Genesis 7:4  -  Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.
  
  
• When Goliath mocked GOD for forty days, David thought, "Well now. That's enough of that!" 
       1 Samuel 17:16  -  For forty days, every morning and evening, the Philistine champion strutted in front of the Israelite army.
  
  
• Saul's forty year reign was enough.
       Acts 13:21  -  They asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.
  
  
• Davidl's forty year reign was enough.
       1 Kings 2:11  -  The length of time David reigned over Israel was 40 years.
  
  
• Solomon's forty year reign was enough.
       1 Kings 11:42  -  Solomon ruled in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years.
  
  
• When you've had forty sons, even if you served as a Judge in ancient Israel, you should take a break. Dude. Really. That's enough.
       Judges 12:14a  -  (Abdon son of Hillel, from Pirathon) He had forty sons and thirty grandsons ... 
  
  
• My friend, Ron Vandergriend, led me up Mt. Sinai a few years ago. For the record, if you don't experience GOD after forty days on that mountain, you're not paying attention. A forty day stay on Sinai is quite sufficient.
       Exodus 24:18  -  Moses disappeared into the cloud as he climbed higher up the mountain. He remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
  
  
• Forty years of wandering around the Sinai wilderness gave GOD's people plenty of time to recognize the consequences of unfaithfulness and the value of a close walk with GOD. 
       Numbers 14:33-34  -  Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness.
  
  
• Forty days and forty nights of taking steps toward GOD is enough to make progress.
       1 Kings 19:8  -   Elijah got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God.
  
  
• When the people of Nineveh heard Jonah's clear warning of GOD's punishment for unrepentant sin, they realized their opportunity to repent would be exhausted in forty days. Forty days proved adequate and the Bible says "When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it."
       Jonah 3:4  -  On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”
  
  
• Moses sent one tribal leader from each of the twelve ancestral tribes of Israel to spy out the land of Canaan. Forty days was all those spies needed to accomplished their mission. 
       Numbers 13:25-26  -  After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land.
  
  

Apparently, forty days are enough to get something done. With that in mind, thousands of us have daily "rigged our sails" to Experience GOD: praying, reading one chapter of Proverbs and FASTING between 4:00-5:00.

GOD is filling our sails with Love, Power and Wisdom. We're not where we were forty days ago. GOD moved us, a'la Jason Miller's brilliant "June 14th Transformers" sermon. (Go here. Click "Now Playing," then click "Series.")

Thank you for making the journey with me. Knowing thousands of us were united, taking daily steps toward Christ and opening our lives to the empowering Spirit of GOD, motivated me to stay the course. We've sailed together for forty days and sharing the voyage has been my great privilege. 

That's enough.

Now it's time to do whatever you need to do to "rig your sails" for the another passage. Our next expedition is about to begin. Get ready. 

 

Proverbs 30:7-9  -  And then he prayed, “God, I’m asking for two things before I die; don’t refuse me— Banish lies from my lips and liars from my presence. Give me enough food to live on, neither too much nor too little. If I’m too full, I might get independent, saying, ‘God? Who needs him?’ If I’m poor, I might steal and dishonor the name of my God.”

 

Comments

[Mark McClean]

Thank you for your faithfulness. Your words and pictures helped me stay the course for the full 40 days.