Dear Praying Friend -   

  

In the beginning God created a beautiful garden where He enjoyed intimate fellowship with His crowning creation. It was a sacred place filled with joy, peace and security, and where the first man and woman could hear their Creator walk in the garden in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8). It was a place of perfection until sin poisoned that perfect union and erected a dividing wall which separated holy God from sinful man (praise God that while the door to Eden was shut, the door to paradise was opened to us!).

  

When we open our hearts to the Lord, He gives us a glimpse of paradise. The heart, like the original garden, is meant to be a place of beauty reserved for God alone. It is meant to be a sanctuary where we experience all the joy and peace of walking in intimate fellowship with our Lord each day; a place separated from the world and set apart to Christ. Sadly, however, we have allowed the encroaching weeds of the world in; and just like the original garden, the garden of our heart has become a place polluted by sin. Rather than remaining a sacred refuge hedged in and closed off for God alone we have let down our guard and exposed ourselves to all kinds of evil and destruction. Because we have not tended to our hearts as carefully as we should, we have become entangled with the thorns and briars of divided affections which have scraped and choked the word of life that was planted within us.   

  

God cares deeply for our interior life because He knows that the greatest battles we face are the constant campaigns vying for the attention of our heart. Every day we are bombarded with people and activities which war for our affection. Divided affections rob our heart of necessary strength and power, and rather than being a place of fruitfulness and growth, our heart is at risk of becoming desolate and hardened because we neglect taking time to draw fresh supplies from heaven in the place of prayer. We must be careful to not allow the busyness of life to rob us of intimate fellowship with our Lord. The true wall of separation is meant to be between our hearts and the world, not between us and God.

  

The Lord wants the garden of our hearts to be healthy. God wants to cultivate in our hearts a beautiful garden where we can enjoy intimate, unencumbered fellowship with Him. He wants to share more of His heart with us so our hearts will become a blooming garden of life and beauty. But we must first be willing to let Him in. It is in the place of prayer where our hearts are opened to more of God. When we open the door of our hearts in response to His tender knocking we can expect that the Lord has prepared for us a delightful feast of greater revelation and deeper fellowship with Himself (Revelation 3:20). May we allow the Holy Spirit room to cultivate in our hearts a garden worthy of our Beloved Lord!

 

CLICK HERE To Watch THE GARDEN OF GOD

 

If you have traveled these 40 day journeys before you know that restoration and rebuilding takes time. With every journey the Lord is opening our hearts to more of Himself and inviting us to a place of deepening intimacy. But to do that requires some de-cluttering of those areas of our life which have become overgrown. The 40-day period is essential because it provides the Master Gardener the necessary time for pruning and weeding the garden of our hearts. And while that can be a painful process in itself, our faithful Husbandman compassionately tends to our hearts to make them a more fruitful and fragrant garden (John 15:1-8).   

  

For those of you who are new to the discipline of praying and/or fasting for 40 days, the HOLY journey is written in a divinely-inspired meal-by-meal format as are all the 40-day devotionals provided by Trumpet and Torch Ministries. The HOLY journey is written to help develop a more disciplined prayer life, but provides the spiritual nourishment necessary for those who are being called to deeper prayer with fasting. The journeys are written to provide believers necessary spiritual nourishment from the Word of God three times a day to help build a disciplined lifestyle of dependence upon the Lord through His Word and in prayer over the course of 40 days. The devotional journey helps to connect our hearts more deeply to the Lord's as we feed on His Word and spend intimate time with Him in prayer throughout the day. In 40 days the Lord develops within us the discipline to wait on Him, ignites a spiritual hunger which only He can satisfy, and provides the strength we need for the ministry and journey that is ahead of us. He uses the 40 days to clarify our vision, fine-tune our hearing, and fill our hearts with more of Him!  

 

With earnest prayer may we desire to dwell closer to His heart,

to go deeper in His Word, to live constantly in His sight,

to walk continually in His Presence,

to honor Him with our lives,

and to long for His Glory!

 

 

The world will continue to lower the law

as long as men strive to do as they see fit in their own eyes (Judges 21:25).

May we not conform to the patterns of this world,

but rather raise up the standard of Christ in our hearts even higher

as we fix our eyes more firmly on Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:1-3)!

 

 

a new 40-day meal-by-meal devotional journey

provided by Trumpet and Torch Ministries

 

The Family Foundation

 issues the trumpet call for

40 days of Prayer, Fasting and Repentance for Marriage

 

Register to participate in the HOLY 40 day devotional email journey:

in Virginia click HERE
www.familyfoundation.org/40daysformarriage
Questions about the 40 Days for Marriage email Roger@FamilyFoundation.org

other States click HERE to register
www.trumpetandtorch.org/holy40days
Questions about the HOLY 40 day  devotional journey email traci@trumpetandtorch.org
or click HERE

Additional Family & Marriage Resources provided

in partnership with  

    

 

 

www.familylife.com
  

If you missed any of our previous weekly emails please visit our ARCHIVE

 

 

Open wide your hearts! Traci Alexander
Trumpet and Torch Ministries