Completed 4 nights of our weeklong Prayer Journey!

So, we've completed 4 nights of midnight praying. We're determined to reach consecutive night 7.
What's the big deal, you may think? Some people pray every night of their lives. It wasn't easy, that much I can tell you. This is spiritual warfare we have embarked on and the enemy knows this. But my God is greater than the enemy.

"But remember the LORD your God, He himself has provided you with strength, so that He may fulfill his covenant, about which He swore to your fathers, just as the present day reveals." ~ Deuteronomy 8:18.

Here's how our journey has been so far:

Night 1 - (Thursday)
Went uneventfully. We were so charged up. So ready to commit to this week long prayer journey. We sang quite a few Praise and Worship songs. It was wonderful to hear Mike praying for us.

Night 2 - (Friday)
I woke up with a sore throat and I heard Mike coughing. I went, 'oh-oh...', took a vitamin and was determined not to fall sick. Wouldn't the enemy just love that to happen to me? That night, just before we started praying, Mike and I realised that we were both suffering bad, back aches. Very, very bad. In fact, I was aching everywhere from my head down. Mike seemed worse off than me. He said his back was actually throbbing. Mine wasn't but I felt like my bones were about to explode. The pain was from the inside. I just kept on reminding Mike that we had to persevere because this was a distraction. The enemy knew we wanted to be close to God and this was the enemy's way of distracting us. It would have been so much easier to take two panadols and just go to sleep. But we both lay down on the bed and prayed. It took a lot of effort but we were determined to not miss this session. Because we were in pain, we looked at the manual pages, at the amount of praying ahead of us and honestly, it seemed a bit long. In truth, we were glad we had made it past the second night at all. Praise God for the awareness that we should expect distractions. Because we were expecting them, we 'conquered' them, in Jesus' name!
(Addendum 20/3/2012 : I need to add that although I had woken with a sore throat on the second morning, I went through the day very much revitalised and full of energy. It was only towards evening that I started to ache all over).

Night 3 - (Saturday)
I woke up and my pain was more or less gone. My sorethroat wasn't apparent. I still felt uncomfortable but not as bad as I did on Friday night. We went out and I made sure to bring our prayer manuals along (just in case for whatever reason, we couldn't reach home on time). Call me kiasu, I don't care. I wasn't about to miss any session. I told Mike if we were to have missed coming home before the midnight hour, he'd jolly well have to park the car somewhere so we could pray in the car. Well, we did make it home on time and we managed to complete night 3. I felt very charged up tonight and Mike (who had a runny nose and a cough) fell asleep right after our prayers. I continued alone with my praying in Tongues. It was a beautiful session with the Lord.

Night 4 - (Sunday)
Mike had a full blown cold but I was okay. For some reason, my elbows which have been hurting for some days, seemed to have gotten worse but my back ache was gone. My right elbow hurt more than my left but I didn't want it to ruin my day. After Mass, we spent the day with the kids, looking for a hamster running wheel (don't even ask!). I cooked a simple dinner and we were free for a couple of hours prior to midnight. Mike was quite sick. He could hardly talk. His throat was very soar sore. He was coughing up phlegm and kept blowing his nose till it was sore. Apart from the 'backache night', last night was the worst so far. Although I wasn't very tired, my eyes kept wanting to close. Even when I sat up! Mike was whispering his prayers because he was so sick, he could hardly mouth the words! We weren't praying in tandem. I was faster and he trailed behind. Then he'd pick up speed and I would have to catch up. I was feeling sooooooo sleepy and yet, he was dragging his feet with the words. I realised we were going to spend hours doing this at this rate. At some point, I lost my patience and told him that his prayers were so soft and asked if he was even praying or falling asleep? He said he hurt so bad that he couldn't even say out the words. Then I felt bad and realised that God would understand anyway. I really wanted to sleep. Goodness. My eyes just wanted to close. We picked really short Praise and Worship songs to start and close and I had to sing them alone as my husband's voice managed random sounds, here and there. I led the Lord's Prayer and made so many silly mistakes recalling the new words. Mike and I stopped and started a few times. Couldn't believe it. We got stuck. My mind was a blank. I hopped off the bed and grabbed a Rosary sheet with the new format of our Lord's Prayer. After our prayers, I turned around and asked Mike if he ever thought it would have been so difficult to read some prayers off a manual? I mean, who would have thought, he'd be so sick, he couldn't even read words aloud? Do not underestimate your enemy.

So, you think it's so simple to embark on this prayer journey? Not so and I'm glad I had the awareness that the enemy draws nearer as you draw closer to God. Well, 3 nights more. I'm not about to give up so I bind the enemy IN THE NAME OF JESUS and cast it at the feet of Jesus!

Tonight, we're intending to attend the Charismatic Prayer meeting. I pray that there will be no distractions to stop us from going. Pray for us. Thank you.