Fasting should be something we do frequently throughout our lives, not just once or twice a year during a special event. So how do we make fasting and prayer a weekly focus?
There’s a lot going on in our world today. The federal protection of Roe vs. Wade was just overturned by the Supreme Court, which is amazing, but there are still more battles to be fought there, we are still in the midst of a pandemic, and our cities are more plagued than ever with apathy, division, confusion and fear. With all that’s happening we need to seek God’s face and His will daily, both in our alone time with Him and in community. In today’s mini blog, we’re going to focus on the Fasting Prayer Guide — specifically how you can implement it personally and with others this summer.
Fasting Personally
We encourage you to use the Fasting Prayer Guide personally, as well as with friends, family and the larger CDM community. The most effective way to share this and mobilize others to do it is to start by doing it yourself. We lead from the front by making prayer and fasting regular disciplines in our lives.
Fasting should be something that is challenging for you. It’s a time to give up something good in order to be present with God. This could be:
Denying yourself a particular food you enjoy
Skipping a meal
Refraining from an activity you normally look forward to.
However you choose to fast, what’s important is that you make a plan on how you are going to proceed and then stick with it. Pick a time that will allow you to give your best to God and then spend it in prayer for the amount of time you would’ve been enjoying that food, meal or activity.
You can always fast and pray more throughout your day, but whatever the time is that you choose to set aside to be with God, don’t miss it. You are spending it with the Lord!
Use the daily prompts laid out in the Fasting Prayer Guide as a pattern to direct your prayer and fasting times.
Read through the Scripture listed for the day.
Use the questions provided to dialogue with Jesus.
Ask Him the questions
Meditate on the passage
Write down what He says to you
Pray back to Him what you see in the passage and what He brings to mind.
The goal of this is to take your time to be with God, so don’t worry about rushing through a checklist. Reflect on what He has to say to you from His Word and make sure you write down how He wants you to obey.
Fasting with Others
Find other people to do the Fasting Prayer Guide with you — your friends, family, church family, the believers you do stuff with all the time.
We at CDM are taking Wednesdays to fast and pray, so maybe you can reach out and see if anyone would like to do that with you. All it takes is a conversation. “Hey, I’m going to fast next weekend and during the summer I’m going to do Wednesdays. Would you like to come alongside me and join me on this journey?”
If you find believers who are willing to do this with you, then great! If you aren’t able to meet as a group to fast together, at least share your individual fasting experiences with one another weekly at some point. This could be in person after church or before group, over zoom, on the phone or whatever.
If you are able to do the Fasting Prayer Guide in a group setting, here is what that process can look like:
Read the passage listed for the day
Give one of the prompts/questions to the group and then have people pray as they feel led.
Make it a conversation between people in the group and God.
Ask the Lord the prompt
Meditate as a group on the passage
Write down the things that the Lord brings to your mind and what he shows the others
Once it seems appropriate to do so, close out that prompt and go on to the next passage or question.
Make sure everyone writes down how God wants them to obey.
Fasting with CDM
We’re going to be fasting so we can see the revitalization, reactivation and repentance of the Church and Disciple Making Movements happen wherever we are.
We want to see what Satan’s schemes are for wreaking destruction so we can pray against them and see God tear down his strongholds. In their place, we want to see renewal as God’s kingdom comes and causes transformation.
To this end, we’ve been building a global community of prayer and developing tools that can help with that. Here are a few of those tools!
The CDM App
If you fancy having instant access to our global prayer community and an entire library of free resources to help you grow in prayer and fasting, there’s no time like the present to take advantage of the CDM App. You can download it here for all of your Apple and Android devices.
The CDM Global Prayer Page
One of our biggest assets is The CDM Global Prayer Page. If you aren’t already a member, follow the link to begin the process of getting connected with believers around the world who would love to pray with and for you.
Each week when we’re doing our prayer and fasting, there’s going to be a post on the CDM Prayer Page that will have the Bible passage for that week. Put in the comments what God is showing you in your prayer times so that our community can see it and be edified.
CDM Prayer Meetings
Along with the CDM Prayer Page, our Prayer Meetings provide you with two opportunities to join us in live prayer throughout the week.
The first meeting happens every Wednesday morning from 8:15-9:15AM PST.
The second meeting is from 5-6PM PST on alternating Tuesdays and Thursdays each week.
You can find the links for both of these meetings in the CDM App under Events. These are great opportunities for us to come together from all over the world, pray, fast and encourage one another, so be sure to attend!
Learn More
Thanks so much for reading! If you’d like to learn more about prayer and fasting this summer, you can check out the “Summer of Fasting with CDM“ episode of the CDM Podcast. Rebecca Ewing and Michael Dorsett take an in-depth look at the Prayer and Fasting Guide, why it matters, how it was put together and how it works to help people just like you grow in seeking God’s face in prayer. You won’t want to miss it!