03/02/2026
Yesterday marked the beginning of our month of prayer and fasting. Throughout the entire month of March, we invite you to join us in setting aside something meaningfulâwhether thatâs a digital fast, or some type of food fast. The specific fast is up to you, but we encourage everyone to participate as we seek the Lord together during this focused time of prayer.
Richard Foster wrote about fasting in his book Celebration of Discipline, he says thisâŚ
âThe Purpose of Fasting It is sobering to realize that the very first statement Jesus made about fasting dealt with the question of motive (Matt. 6:16-18). To use good things to our own ends is always the sign of false religion. How easy it is to take something like fasting and try to use it to get God to do what we want...Fasting must forever center on God. Physical benefits, success in prayer, the enduing with power, spiritual insightsâthese must never replace God as the center of our fasting.⌠Once the primary purpose of fasting is firmly fixed in our hearts, we are at liberty to understand that there are also secondary purposes in fasting. More than any other discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. This is a wonderful benefit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface. If pride controls us, it will be revealed almost immediately. David said, âI humbled my soul with fasting.â (Psalm 69:10). Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fearâif they are within us, they will surface during fasting. At first we will rationalize that our anger is due to our hunger; then we know that we are angry because the spirit of anger is within us. . We can rejoice in this knowledge because we know that healing is available through the power of Christ. . Fasting reminds us that we are sustained âby every word that proceeds from the mouth of Godâ. Food does not sustain us, God sustains us. Therefore, in experiences of fasting we are not so much abstaining from food as we are feasting on the word of God.â