Prayer & Fasting
As a church, we believe prayer and fasting is an opportunity to dedicate our time, seek the Lord, and pray together!
We encourage each of you to ask the Lord what you should fast and follow His leading on what He’s asking you to set aside to focus on Him. As a church, we recognize that Scripture refers to fasting as abstaining from food. However, we understand health needs can impact what individuals are able to fast. We encourage you to take some time to pray and ask God what He wants you to fast from and be willing to consider a food fast in a healthy and safe manner! Some ideas of what fasting could look like are:
Fast meals (one meal a day, all meals one day a week, sunup to sundown, etc.), sweets/sugar, meat, snacks between meals, soda, alcohol, or coffee. You could also try a “Daniel Fast” (from Daniel Chapters 1 & 10: eating fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and water), or only drinking water.
If you are unable to fast from food, prayerfully consider areas in your life that might be consuming your attention or stealing your focus. You could fast from phone time, watching television, reading, or playing video games. You could also try getting up earlier in the day to pray and spend time in the Word in addition to what you’re fasting.
Why Fast?
The heart behind fasting is choosing to give up something important or costly to us in order to dedicate our hearts, time, and attention more fully to the Lord. It often allows us to better tune in and hear what God is speaking to us. Fasting creates an intentional shift in our hearts and minds to pursue God and His perfect will.
Resources
If you’d like to do attentional research into biblical fasting or need some encouragement, check out the helpful resources below!
Read Fasting: Clearing Space for What Matters Most.
Look through our prayer guide to help you as you pray during your fast!
Additional Resources
Pray First by Chris Hodges.
Fasting by Jentezen Franklin.
The Daniel Fast for Spiritual Breakthrough by Elmer L. Towns.
The Fasting Practice by John Mark Comer.
A Hunger for God by John Piper.
Key Principles of Biblical Fasting by Kay Arthur and Pete De Lacy.