Today starts the 21 day fast that me along with Matt and alot of people from The Ridge are participating in. Pastor Bobby Williams explains it here....
Coming up this weekend we start the series Crazy Love. The first message in the series will be called Crazy Faith. The message will be centered around the question, what are we doing right now that requires real faith? It's a good question to wrestle with and one that I want us each to wrestle with as we cross into a new decade.
So with that message, I think that entering into this new decade, new year, new season of ministry, what better way to pray and seek God's favor than to fast together as a church. Something that requires a great deal of faith is fasting. I would suspect many people in our church have never fasted for a period of time longer than a day. What I would like to do is purpose a 21 day fast.
During this 21 days, everyone has the choice to choose the type of fast and the period for which one would fast. Remember, a fast doesn't have to involve giving up food. Maybe it's the web, tv, or maybe it's a period of time fast....like 2 days a week for 3 weeks. Or anything else you can come up with. To go along with your fast, I would recommend reading through either the book of John which has 21 chapters OR the book of Luke which has 24 chapters. I say Luke because in the fall we will begin to preach through the book of Luke until we finish it. (crazy...yes. But that's what it's all about right)
So with anything that we do as a church, I will always ask our leadership to go first. If you don't lead out in front, no one will follow. The best form of leadership is to let people see you step out first. Before I mention this on Sunday to our church, will you commit to fasting and commit to greater attention to prayer for 21 days starting December 28th through January 17th?
There is a great resource available to us called awake21.org. I hope to have resources available to everyone on Sunday to aid in this fast.
Matt and I have decided to read through the book of Luke. Chapter 1 down and I'm already amazed. Matt decided to fast from coffee. Ok, if you haven't met my husband you wouldn't know the obsession that he has with coffee. Starbucks logo should be tattooed all over his body. So him fasting from coffee is a big ordeal. I'm very proud that he chose that. God will be the only reason he gets through it! Here lately, actually all my life I have struggled with worry. Sometimes it consumes me, but lately it's been a lot worse. With everything changing and our whole world about to be flipped when Leeland gets here, I've let it take over. So I am fasting from worry. I know it sounds a little ridiculous but when it takes over it's taking away my relationship with God. Please pray for Matt and I along with all the others at The Ridge that over the next 21 days God really changes us and makes us completely rely on him.
