DISRUPT THE NORM (What Are The 10 Days of Awe?)
Written By: Tim Mannin
Welcome to the 10 Days of Awe devotional! It’s so good that you’re here — you’ve taken the first step and showed up to spend time with God and unite with many others at OKC Community. It’s a beautiful thing to know that hundreds of people are intentionally uniting for 10 days in prayer, devotion, worship, and gathering together. For the next ten days this devotional will help you orient your heart, mind, and soul to walk in the awe and wonder of God. The sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus should leave every one of us awestruck at God’s power and on top of that the love and grace that comes through his sacrifice and defeat of death should cause endless wonder!
Let’s first establish what the Ten Days of Awe are in case you don’t know the history.
Leviticus 23:23-27 — The Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular work, but present a food offering to the Lord.’” The Lord said to Moses, “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord.
The first day of the seventh month was the ancient Israelite holy day known as the Feast of Trumpets, known today as the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah and the tenth day of the seventh day was the holy day known as the Day of Atonement, known today as the Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur. The ten days in between are the Ten Days of Awe — a designated time for God’s people to identify with the awesome burden of their sin, seek God, forgive others, and receive God’s forgiving atonement for their sin.
So that’s the history and now we are doing our own version of a ‘designated time’ for ten days. Let me ask you — what if you disrupted your norms for ten days in order to designate a special dedication unto the Lord? What if your priority and focus for ten days was God? You may be thinking, “Well shouldn’t God be prioritized every day…aren’t we supposed to Make God First? So why is this different” Yes of course, but let’s get real about our norms. For most of us, our normal daily routines are so full that we have little to no time for spontaneous faith or special dedication to God in any way. We may be Making God First in our hearts and that’s important, but our normal routines leave little to no room for the awe + wonder of God to even accidentally disrupt us!
Do you think God wants to disrupt you?
Of course he does! He longs to be the affection of your heart and God knows that the greater He is in your life the greater your life will be! God consistently works through disruption, in fact, there are endless examples of this throughout the scriptures. To narrow the focus let’s just consider six examples in scripture where God disrupted someone and their response was the famous scriptural response, “Here I am.” That statement has always inspired many in the church, but every time it happened it was in the midst of disruption. Here are the six moments.
Abraham
Genesis 22:1 - Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. God’s next words were that Abraham should sacrifice his son Isaac. Talk about a record scratch disruption — Abraham was living in joy with his cherished son, Isaac and God disrupted Abraham’s world in an instant. However, God’s purpose is always bigger and this eventually led Abraham to the awe and wonder of God!Jacob
Genesis 31:11 - The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am.’ God entered into the mess of Jacob’s life with a disruptive call. In Genesis 46:2, God called again and Jacob answered, ‘Here I am” and again God saved the nation through Jacob’s willingness to follow God’s call.Moses
Exodus 3:4, When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” Moses was quietly living a life as a shepherd and God miraculously disrupted him in to order to use him in way he never could imagine.Samuel
1 Samuel 3:4 - Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” The Lord called to Samuel as a child and Samuel was used by God in many ways, including to anoint both Saul and David, the first kings of Israel. Disruption can happen at any time, any age, and to any person.Isaiah
Isaiah 6:8 - Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” God was looking for someone willing to be disrupted from their normal life and to radically trust God. Isaiah became one of the Old Testament’s great prophets…”here I am, send me.”Ananias
Acts 9:10 — In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered. Ananias said, “YES LORD!!” A different phrase, but the same meaning, “Yes God I’m here, I’m open, I hear you, Here I am!” God used Ananias as the key disciple in the Apostle Paul’s salvation and radical conversion.
What about you?
Will you tell God, “Here I am!”
What if for 10 Days you had this daily prayer…
“Here I am…disrupt me God…and fill me awe and wonder.”
REFLECTION + NEXT STEPS
Spend time today praying that prayer…“here I am…disrupt me God and fill me awe and wonder.”
Work on your schedule: The 10 Days of Awe is all about creating a “designated time” with God. So begin by working on your schedule for the next 10 days. Disrupt it and do several things out of the norm. Start with the things we are doing as a church by including as many of these things as you can. Add to it with your own ideas and ways of making God first.
Prayer Room: participate in 10 Days of Prayer by scheduling a time of prayer (or multiple times) March 25-April 3.
Holy Week Noonday Gatherings - March 25-28, 12pm
Good Friday Gatherings — March, 29, 7am or 12pm
Invite someone to Easter — March 31, 9am or 10:45am
First Wednesday + Baptism’s — April 3, 6:30pm
Continue this devotional through the 10 Days!