Fasting used to be part of the regular spiritual exercises of the early church. They fasted as part of their ministry of worship to the Lord (Acts 13:2) and fasted in conjunction with prayer when starting new ministries (Acts 13:3). They fasted when they needed direction for personal problems (I Cor 7:5) and when they wanted to confirm new leaders in the Lord (Acts 14:23).

At critical moments in church as well as personal life, the early Christians enjoined fasting to their prayers in order to gain insight, direction, confirmation, or a blessing from the Lord. Unfortunately, this is not the case with us today because we’re too full of the world to fast and live too fast a lifestyle to have a meaningful prayer life.

This is why we have a prayer and fasting weekend. From Friday Feb 22nd 6PM to Saturday Feb 23rd 6PM, we will try to have a full 24 hour period of prayer and fasting as a church. I’ll give the details of how this will work during my lesson today but the important things to remember are the following:

• If you don’t feel like doing it – then you need it badly because you’re either too “full” or too “fast” and it’s time to empty some of self and be filled with the Spirit.
• If you look forward to it then doing it only once per year is not enough to feed your spiritual hunger.
• If you’re not sure, don’t worry because all the information you need will be provided.

Here’s to a weekend where there will be less of us, less of the world, less of the evil one and more of Him.