Join your church family in Homeport’s annual season of prayer and fasting. This year’s 21 days of prayer & fasting will be January 8th – 28th, 2023. Start the new year of right by focusing on your relationship with God over these 21 Days of Prayer & Fasting. The goal of this time is to draw nearer to God. Biblical prayer & fasting always has to do with eliminating distractions for a spiritual purpose; it hits the reset button of our soul and renews us from the inside out!
DRAWING CLOSER TO GOD THROUGH PRAYER
Prayer is most effective when it isn’t something, we do every now and then, but we cultivate when it’s a lifestyle. These 21 days help us build the habit of slowing down to pray and spend time with God listening for His guidance and direction. These times become holy moments we can experience throughout the each day.
MEET WITH GOD THROUGH FASTING
The goal of fasting is to eliminate distractions and use that time to draw nearer to God. Fasting is, at its core, a step towards denial of self-satisfaction for the pursuit of more in-depth time with God. The heart behind fasting is to replace whatever you are fasting from to give you more focused time on seeking God in prayer, His Word, and worship. Setting aside to meet with the Living God WILL radically change your life! It is very important to know your own body, your options, and, most importantly, to seek God in prayer and follow what the Holy Spirit leads you to do.
Scripture References
TYPES OF FASTS
COMPLETE FAST
This fast calls for drinking only liquids, typically water with light juices as an option.
SELECTIVE FAST
This type of fast involves removing certain elements from a diet. One example of a selective fast is the Daniel Fast, during which you remove meat, sweets, or bread from your diet and consume water and juice for fluids and fruits and vegetables for food.
PARTIAL FAST
This fast is sometimes called the Jewish Fast and involves abstaining from eating any types of food in the morning and afternoon. This can either correlate to specific times of the day, such as 6:00 am to 3:00 pm, or from sunup to sundown.
MEDIA FAST
This fast is common for those who do not have much experience fasting foods, who have health issues that prevent the fasting of food, or who wish to refocus certain areas of their life that are out of balance. For instance, someone might select to abstain from using social media or watching television for the duration of the fast—and then choosing how to carefully bring that element back into their life in an orderly fashion.
Check out this Fasting Starter Kit for more help planning your Fast this year.
Thank you to Church of the Highlands for putting together these resources.