21 Days in 2011

It is said that it takes 21 days to break or make a habit. I've always wanted to test that, so since it's the time of year for new resolutions and all that, I'm going to give it a try. There are a few things that have been knocking on my heart for months. When that happens, I can't escape the fact that God is trying to tell me something. I can't escape it, but I'll surely miss it if I don't do something about it. So here are a few of my goals for 21 days that will hopefully affect the rest of this year.

The Daniel Fast: My church, as well as many others across the country, are doing 21 days of fasting and prayer from January 9th through the 31st. I don't really like fasting...who does? But I really feel lead to refresh my spirit, soul and body during this time, focusing on a deep search of God and His Word to impact, transform and overflow in my life. Because I am a nursing mother, I will be doing a Daniel fast with a few modifications. Basically it consists of fruits, vegetables, nuts and water. I'm going to research what other nutrients I need to add for nursing.

The Heart Search: During those 21 days, I want to focus on a study of the "heart" in the Bible. I seem to be surrounded by so many mentions and issues of the heart lately that I want to literally study all the places the Bible mentions the word "heart" and understand what God has to say about it.

Me, Myself, I & My: I feel convicted to undo the habit of using these words in conversation and even in prayer. Yes, I know it would be silly to try to completely omit them from my vocabulary, but I really want to break the habit of speaking about myself so much, specially when using the word "my". I want to create the habit of speaking (good) about others and praying for others more than myself. So except to say "I'm sorry", I will try to very rarely use "me, myself, I and my" during these 21 days. (Although this all wouldn't make much sense without them, these words have already been used 39 times in this blog post!)

The Word Invasion: This past holiday season as I reflected on the deeper meaning of it all, I really was struck by the concept of the "Word" becoming flesh. As I mentioned in a recent post, Jesus became flesh for us, but I want to apply that to my daily routine by allowing God's Word to become real and invade every detail of life. Lately I seem to come across example after example of people facing incredible situations in their lives by proclaiming the Word of God and believing it and seeing God's promises come to life before their eyes. I've realized that there is a difference between knowing the concept of what God's Word is about and actually knowing and understanding the words. When I face difficulties, triumphs, challenges, opportunities, joys and everyday tasks, I want to have the very words of God at the forefront of my mind. For me, this means that specially during the 21 days I not only plan to study the Bible in depth, but also to make choices to invade my eyes and ears with the Word by listening to, reading and watching things that will inspire gratitude, worship and faith. This also means saying "no" whatever doesn't accomplish this.

So in one week I will start these 21 days and I hope to be blogging a lot about what I'm learning and being inspired by. These type of resolutions or goals always make the perfectionist in me nervous that I won't be able to follow through. It's easier to just not even try than to fail. But I feel God has really been speaking about these things to me and I want to walk it out in faith. If your church is doing something similar or you just feel like you'd like to join in these 21 days, I encourage you to listen to God's voice in your heart and follow through. I believe God would and could do so much more in our lives than we are seeing simply because we neglect to stop and listen. If you decide to try these 21 days in whatever shape or form, or if you have any specific prayer requests, please let me know... I would love to be praying for you during that time!