Day of Prayer & Fasting

On Sunday the 3rd of May I hope that we will all be able to come together as a church community for a day of prayer and fasting.
You will have seen in the last weekly newsletter that Jacque has given us some helpful guidance about this.

It is an opportunity to sacrifice something to God, and to plead with him, on behalf of ourselves, our nation and our world. Use the time that you would have spent eating or preparing food (or whatever you have decided to fast from) to spend time with God.

Many of us have recently completed Pete Greig’s prayer course and I thought that this would be a great opportunity to put some of that learning into practice. To that end I have prepared a guide that uses the pattern that he outlined in the first session.

He encourages us to P.R.A.Y.

Pause: Spend a couple of minutes in quiet centring on God.                                                                         
Get into a comfortable posture, breathe slowly and deeply and try to empty your mind of distracting thoughts.
Perhaps use a few words in the rhythm of your breathing to help you to focus your thoughts on God.

Rejoice: Use some words from 2 Chronicles 7 to lift your praise to God.

… the glory of the Lord filled the temple… they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying,                                                                                                                                        
“He is good; his love endures forever.”

Reflect: Spend a few moments reflection on 2 Chronicles 7:13-14.

Read this through two or three times. As you do, be aware of what strikes you.

13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 
             
As you reflect on this passage what is God saying to you? How is he asking you to respond?

Ask: Bring to God the prayers of your heart.

These are some suggested prayer points:
• No more virus.  An effective treatment to be found asap.
• People who are sick, and people mourning the death of loved ones. Our own church family.
• The people working on the front line, safety, provisions, healing of trauma.
• The Government, wise counsel, and righteous insightful action.
• The nation to pull together in one accord. Helping each other and the countries of the world helping and supporting each other.
• Families – relationships, finances, anxiety, etc.
• Above all that God’s purposes will be worked out, and that there will be a turning back to God.  
• For the church to be ready.

And don’t forget to close with prayers of thanks.

Yield: Surrender again your life to God and recognise anything that he is asking you to do.

It may be helpful to close with another brief time of silence before God.

Below is the link to some resources from the toolkit of the prayer course about fasting.
https://downloads.24-7prayer.com/prayer_course/2019/resources/pdfs/28%20How%20to%20Fast.pdf

I hope that you have found this useful and that you are able to engage with this wherever you are and whatever circumstances you are enduring.

If during this time you feel that God has spoken to you and you want to share that please don’t hesitate to email me at stephl@ebc-bracknell.org

May God bless you richly as you draw close to Him.

Steph