Day 10: Setting Aside Time

Week 2, Wednesday, January 13

Text: Matthew 4:1-2
“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.”

Thought for the day:
One of our biggest hindrances to prayer is finding time to actually pray. One of the benefits of fasting is that is allows you to set aside time from your normal activity in order to pray.

We can pray in many ways. I often pray while I am driving, or when I finish meeting with someone.  These occasions, however, are usually opportune times to pray. They are not born out of an intentional effort to set aside time for God.

We should practice praying at opportune moments, but we should also set aside time for God in prayer. One of the benefits of fasting is that it makes us realize that time spent with God is worth a rearrangement of our normal routines.

Journal/Exercise:
Look back at your journal to Day 5. On that day, you were instructed to write down a blessing that you would seek from God in prayer. Have you noticed any ways that God has responded to that prayer? Have you continued to pray for that blessing? Pray again for that particular fruit of the Spirit to be evident in your life.