Lent Plan

1) Give up late nights (11pm bedtime)

Most of the things we give up free some time to spend with God. When you fast for example, food is sacrificed to spend time in prayer, but this discipline does not give any more time in the day – rather it gives less. Time’s important to me (being British) and I find myself becoming increasingly busy, so why decide on such a 

thing to give up if it’s not even giving me more time with God?

i.                    It means I have less time in the evening. This means that I cannot procrastinate like I am so prone to do. Instead of deciding to watch a film every now and again, or have a quick break to look at an entertaining video, I have to focus. Giving up late nights will probably mean giving up video games, youtube, too much time of facebook and even hours spent on the computer. Instead I will need to be disciplined in how time is used in the day.

ii.                  It means I am not awake during the most tempting hours of the evening. After 11pm everything gets that much more tempting (especially when we have laptops). Temptation leads to later nights, procrastination and shame. Shame opens up a whole negative feedback cycle which ruins confidence and our spiritual journey.

iii.                It means more sleep. I need 8h, instead I’m getting 6-8h meaning up to 2h deficit a day, that’s up to 14h a week – imagine not sleeping for 1.75 days a week and that’s what missing 2 out of 8 hours does to us. Not sleeping means no protein synthesis so the body cannot function or repair itself. It means no time to dream and think things over. It means the body is still craving sleep in the day. The result is an unhealthy, physically drained, inattentive caffeine-craving life. A life that is susceptible to negative emotions like bitterness, jealousy, apathy and anger rather than love. This emotion affects relationships and my spiritual walk. We are holistic beings, remove sleep and you endanger the body, mind, spirit and relationships.

iv.                It will make waking up easier in the morning, starting the day well, and giving more time to spend with God before lectures.

2) Guidance: Despite signing every text with God guide. Despite having this as my blog's title. Despite teaching on this very topic in Acts. Despite all of the stories you mat have read here, this is still something I need to work on. It's God who guides, and when he does things work out. I want to flow with the river and not fight against it. Guidance as a discipline is less concrete than other disciplines. Whilst something like solitude would be easy to measure (time spent alone with God), guidance is not. I am quite a methodological person, getting much from plans, and so I have a few ideas of how to work on this discipline, but it will be varied. Instead of doing the same thing each day, I will vary ways to hear from God and act upon that. I would be a hypocrite to take up the discipline of guidance, and then entirely box it into a schedule, so plans may change. I might also find myself hearing from God and acting by doing things I wouldn't normally do, and I make no apology for this, but will also need to work on discernment to be clear about what God is saying and when/ how to respond (perhaps involving a trusted person). The aim is to make myself available to God’s guidance in many different fields of life. It will involve times of silence to hear from God, lectio divina to encounter God in scripture, treasure hunting to hear God in evangelism, learning from others who are seeking to hear from God and I hope to explore how I can actively seek to hear from God in other areas of life. Every day I will also read a chapter of: 

“Duewel, W.L. (2001). Let God Guide You Daily”

which are short (2-7p, 45 chapters), practical and scriptural.


This first week I intend on seeking God in the silence - to have unstructured times of listening to God with no agenda.

Update:

Since starting this blog I became a Counsellor. You can read more on blog on subjects like Therapy at:

 www.simonslistening.co.uk