Are you ready to take on the New Year?

Looking for a way to grow spiritually and start this new year off? Then join us for 10 Days of Prayer and Fasting! These 10 Days will be an incredible opportunity to prioritize your relationship with God and focus attention on what matters most. Whether you have a great prayer life or no prayer life at all, this is a powerful way to start 2025!  

Why do we fast?

In Matthew 6:16, Jesus looks tells His followers, “When you fast” and proceeds to give specific instructions about how they are to fast and pray. It’s interesting that Jesus didn’t say ‘if’ you fast, He said ‘when’ you fast. This tells us that Jesus assumed His followers were going to fast. This means fasting is a spiritual discipline that every Christian must devote themselves to. 

All throughout The Bible, God’s people consistently took time to fast and pray in order to grow closer to God and experience breakthroughs in specific areas. If you are wanting to deepen your relationship with God or see Him move supernaturally in a specific area, this is a great time to fast and pray. 

What Is Fasting? 

At Emerge, we encourage a church-wide fast for 10 days. Fasting is a powerful spiritual discipline that aligns our hearts more closely with the heart of God and also empowers us to see breakthroughs in specific areas. The goal of fasting is to draw closer to God. The idea is to sacrifice something, and when you would normally participate in it, turn your attention to God and pray, read the Bible, or worship. Biblical 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. It helps us as believers to not be ruled by our physical desires but to grow in spiritual power and authority over the desires of our flesh. It also enables us to celebrate the goodness and mercy of God and prepares our hearts for all the good things God desires to bring into our lives. 

 

During this season of focused prayer as a church family, we are believing the Lord will do some amazing things. We're believing God for answered prayer and direction for specific needs. We are declaring our dependence on God in every area of our lives. We are asking for forgiveness for our sins. We are standing in the gap for our nation. We are praying for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We are inviting the Presence of God in our church and our lives. We are crying out to God for revival in our generation. We would love for you to join us for 10 Days of Prayer and Fasting. 

 

What To Do

1. Consider what type of fast you feel led to do. Be sensitive to the Lord’s leading when choosing your fast. 

2. Set aside time each day for reading the Bible and praying. Here’s the Bible Reading Plan we will be following. Also, join us in our daily prayer focus each day. 

 3. Join us each Sunday morning at 10:30am and Prayer Night on Jan 15th as we collectively seek the Lord and His Word. There’s nothing better than coming together as a church family in corporate worship and prayer!  

 

 

Reading The Bible 

One of the most powerful disciplines you can develop to become more like Jesus is to simply read the Bible. If you then create space to meditate on what you’ve read and have a conversation with God about it for the next 10 days, you will be amazed at how much you will grow spiritually. 

‍If reading the Bible has been a struggle or difficult for you in the past, try using the YouVersion Bible App. It has many different devotional plans for you to choose from. Here is a suggested plan that we recommend for you during the 10 Days of Prayer and Fasting. 

https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/31637-living-in-gods-presence/day/1 

 

Choosing Your Fast 

Let’s be reminded that fasting isn’t a form of punishment for the sins you’ve committed since Christ took care of that for you on the cross. It’s the decision to disconnect yourself from your dependence on the world and yourself.  

 

It’s important to note that fasting without prayer is simply not eating or doing that thing you always do. Remember that the goal is to stop something for a time so that you can redirect your focus, energy, and attention toward God. The goal is to replace these activities we are fasting from with time reading God’s Word and in prayer. 

 
Here are examples of the different types of fasts that you might consider: 

Complete Fasting: 

‍In this type of fast, you drink only liquids, typically water with light juices as an option. 

(Talk to your doctor and consult the Holy Spirit before you participate in this option)  

Selective Fast: 

This type of fast involves removing certain elements from your diet. One example of a selective fast is the Daniel Fast, during which you remove meat, sweets, and 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 type 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. 

‍Soul Fast: 

This fast is a great option if you do not have much experience fasting food, have health issues that prevent you from fasting food, or if you wish to refocus certain areas of your life that are out of balance. For example, you might choose to stop using social media or watching television for the duration of the fast and then carefully bring that element back into your life in healthy doses at the conclusion of the fast. 

Here are some resources to help you in this season of Prayer & Fasting: 

  • The Daniel Fast: About the Daniel Fast- CLICK HERE TO ACCESS (created by Ultimate Daniel Fast)