PRAYER & FAST NOTE #3
Encouragement for Your Fast
As we enter day five of the fast, I know many of you are feeling tired and needy. Maybe you have even had thoughts of wanting to call it quits or give in and alter your fast because it feels too hard. If this is you, you are not alone, and this is not strange. Fasting is hard, and it always brings resistance. It brings spiritual resistance (“we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces"). The tension in your marriage surfacing, the problems at work, the barrage of lies, the obstacles that keep arising — you need to see them through spiritual eyes. Satan wants you to quit seeking God and miss out on what He has for you. But it also brings resistance because you are denying your flesh, you are denying yourself, and no one takes pleasure in self-denial. It is uncomfortable and unnatural.
What makes this resistance even more significant is what God is already beginning to do among us: I am already hearing stories of God moving; speaking to people, giving people fresh vision for their lives, moments of repentance, courage for mission, and more. I believe this very deeply: God has so much to pour out through this fast. He wants to set people free, give people new dreams for their lives, bring healing and breakthrough. He is a good Father who wants to give good gifts to His children.
So in light of God moving, and the staggering promises in the Scriptures of who He is and how He responds to those who seek Him in faith, I have one simple encouragement for you: KEEP GOING. Keep pressing in. Keep denying yourself. Keep dropping to your knees and praying in faith. Keep opening up the Scriptures and receiving. Keep turning back to Christ over and over again. There is something beautiful on the other side of it all that I don't want you to miss out on. God wants to give us more of Himself - and that should drive us to keep seeking!
“Let us not grow weary or become discouraged in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest, if we do not give in.” (Galatians 6:9)
Love you!
Expectant alongside you,
- Pastor Christopher
Come Seek the Lord Tonight!
I encourage you to make plans to join us tonight as we set aside time to lift our voices in praise and cry out in prayer. There is something special about coming together as a one church across all our campuses to seek God, especially during a fast. We come needy, hungry and expectant - and those are ingredients for God to respond and move among us in mighty ways. I am eager to seek God alongside you.
7pm at the Fremont Campus
Also available as Markdown.