On Monday, we started our 21 Days of Praying and Fasting! During this time, we meet every morning for an hour. We worship together and pray over our church, nation, and leaders. I recently talked about giving the first of days/weeks/months to God! This 21 days is all about giving Him the first of the YEAR! While early mornings and fasting can be intimidating, God moves when you make sacrifices and shift your focus.
We observe the Daniel Fast during these three weeks. This is a partial fast where caffeine, meat, dairy products, sugars, etc. are avoided. The focus is on prayer! In the Bible, Daniel ate plain and simple food while seeking God. Since we are cutting certain food and drink out of life during this time, the gap is filled with worship and prayer. How powerful. Fasting isn’t about starving yourself or proving yourself to others; it’s about being willing to make sacrifices and fervently seeking God. Joel 1:14: “Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God; and cry out to the Lord.”
What I love about 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting is that it helps make prayer a priority and reaffirms that God can help me do anything (fasting isn’t always easy, and it’s not supposed to be). It also helps me pause, think about all of the leaders here at The Summit, throughout my state, and even throughout the nation and world! We pray over people by name, pray over individual requests, and entrust all things to God.
Galatians 5:16-17: “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other…” Let walking by the Spirit be your goal this week!