Welcome to your 21 days of prayer and fasting journey! I am so thankful that God has allowed us such a relationship with Him that we can draw closer to His presence by deepening our connection with Him. We are going to endeavor to do this by denying ourselves (fasting), intentionally focusing more on our conversations with Him (praying), and diving daily into the Word of God for direction (devotionals).

Rules of Engagement:

We are going to intentionally pray three times a day. I do not want to put a time limit on our lunchtime prayers, but your morning and evening prayers should be at least 30 minutes. During these times, we will have specific prayer focuses:

Morning Prayers:

• Praise God for the blessing of another day.

• Pray for the strength, protection, and wisdom to thrive that day.

• Pray for God to search you and remove anything that is not of Him.

• Finally, we will pray this dangerous prayer in the mornings. We will pray that God will use us to have a positive impact on someone during our day in the name of Jesus. That we might bear some fruit today!

Mid-Day Prayers:

• Praise God for the provisions in your day and your life, if He has moved in any way that day, give Him the glory.

• Also, use the midday prayer time to focus on specifically hearing and obeying God’s voice for the afternoon.

• Ask God to give you an opportunity to share the love of Jesus in the next several hours, much like our morning prayer.

Evening Prayers:

• Praise God for the events of the day, even if it has been a rough one, He was with you.

• Here we are going to specifically intercede for the individuals in your life who need to find the saving grace of Jesus. Take each name and pray to God specifically for them, calling them by name.

• Then we will end our daily prayer time by having a quiet time of focusing to hear the voice of God in our lives. Ask God to reveal if there is anything in your life that is keeping you from being as fruitful as He has called you to be.

Praying in this manner over the next 21 days will begin to make sure we are cultivating a powerful relationship with and focus on the Lord.

Fasting:

We are also practicing the spiritual discipline of fasting. Fasting means we are giving up something (that will hurt) to allow God’s strength to carry us through or provide the nourishment we require, while drawing us nearer in relationship with Him.  Remember, giving up whatever it is you decided to fast is only half of the equation. When the urge for it, or the time you would have spent doing it arrives, that is when it’s time to get into scripture and prayer, or worship time with music, or even listening to some Christian podcasts. Do not substitute one time waster with another! If you are fasting social media, then do not let yourself substitute that time with TV. Or if you’re fasting a meal, don’t waste the time you would spend eating. Use it to deepen your relationship with God!

I will always start our prayer and fasting times by reminding you how Jesus instructed us to fast in the greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount:

So, over the next few weeks, whatever it is that you are fasting, do not go around complaining about it! That’s not pleasing to God. Go about your lives in the strength and provision of the Lord!