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Fast Day 5: Don’t Fast Like This
Isaiah 58 outlines the kind of fast or response that God wants from us. He doesn’t want what the Israelites had been giving Him: a stolid, pious, self-righteous, cold, calculating, look-at-me, tit-for-tat, complaining, religious attitude. You say, “Why have we fasted and You have not been impressed? Why have we been hard on ourselves and…
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Fast Day 4: Pick It Up
Learning to cope with our circumstances sounds like the thing we should do. So we often rely on coping mechanisms to face the chains we feel because we CAN rely on them. Our favorite coping strategies feel constant, consistent and familiar. We always call our mom and she makes us feel good about whatever stumped…
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Fast Day 3: True Thirst
When we fast, we want to pay less attention to what we are giving up and more attention to God. We want our hunger and thirst for something physical to be replaced with a renewed hunger and thirst for something spiritual. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me…
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Fast Day 2: True Hunger
Fasting is a spiritual discipline that you might not have tried before. I have done a forty day sugar fast every January for three years. I can’t say it’s easy, but it does get easier. In this fast I still eat meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and nuts. I still eat. So there is really no…
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Fast Day 1: Fasting and Prayer
Because the Bible consistently connects spiritual fasting with prayer, we must, too. If we fast without praying, there is, of course, not really a spiritual element. Fasting is a discipline that people from many places have practiced over many generations and is connected to many different faiths. You don’t even have to have any specific…
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Fast Prep Day 7: Get Ready to Fast!
Know why you are fasting. See the post, What Am I Fasting For? Know what spiritual fasting looks like. See the post, What Could My Fast Look Like? Know why fasting is a spiritual discipline for all Christians. See the post, How Does Fasting Work? Know specifically why God is leading you to fast. See…
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Fast Prep Day 6: How Not to Fast
You say, “Why have we fasted and You have not been impressed? Why have we been hard on ourselves and You have not even noticed?” I, the LORD, say, “Because you are fasting to please yourselves and even while you are fasting, you oppress your workers. What good is fasting if it ends in quarreling…
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Fast Prep Day 5: A Simple Fasting Plan
Write down a simple plan in a journal you will use for your 30 Day Fast. Take into account all of the preparation work you have done and ask God to help you capture it more clearly and succinctly. What will I fast from, exactly? (note if there will be an accepted replacement) Which hours…
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Fast Prep Day 4: Reasons to Fast
There isn’t just one reason to fast. The Bible is full of situations where fasting takes place for personal, family and national reasons. And God probably doesn’t care what our reason is, just that we set aside special time to fast and be with Him. But intentionality will keep our focus strong! Here are a…
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Fast Prep Day 3: How does fasting work?
We can learn a few things from Jesus’ experience in the wilderness to make our own fast successful: Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted and eaten nothing for forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And…
happy hunger
FIVE MARKS OF A DISCIPLE: OCTOBER 5 – NOVEMBER 2
Posts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday: Fasting builds intimacy with God, and encourages you to grow inwardly, upwardly, and outwardly. Explore five marks of a transformed disciple of Jesus and determine five actions that will allow God to change you. An action that applies to each mark is focus. Fasting and prayer is God’s way for us to find the kind of focus that builds intimacy within and actions without. Be with Him. Be like Him. Do what He wants.
COMING NEXT! MAKING SPACE: NOVEMBER 4 – NOVEMBER 27
Reflect on how to use fasting to make more space for God in your life. Make space in the moment and better reflect God to others. Make space in the morning and enjoy intimacy with Him. Make space in your conversations with others and learn how to listen like He does. Make space in your schedule to breathe and be refreshed by Him. Make space in your commitments so that you can say Yes! to the things He wants you to do. God made a space in this world for us. Let’s return the favor!
