Thank you for joining us in fasting & praying for our church as we end Passion Week together.

When we gather for Good Friday, we are rememeing that Jesus died so we could die. 

When we gather on Easter, we are reemmbering that Jesus lives so that we could live. 

So we will be fasting on Thursday or Friday (or both). 

What does this fast look like? 

Simply skip breakfast and lunch and break it whenever you need to later that day. 

Take extra time - perhaps time you would normally spend preparing and eating meals - to read God's word and pray while fasting. 

What should we pray for?

Since we have just finished a 3-part series on the Beatitudes of Jesus, we want to pray for our church to grow in blessing, in the joy of the Lord, in our freedom. And in order to grow in this freedom, we need to continually die to our sin, our flesh, our pride, and our fears. 

More specifically, let's be praying that:

We can die to our self-sufficiency and instead be poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3);

We can die to self-satisfaction and instead mourn for our sin (Matthew 5:4);

We can die to self-absorption and instead be meek (Matthew 5:5);

We can die to self-righteousness and instead hunger & thirst for God's righteousness (Matthew 5:6);

We can die to our need to dermand our rights and insteaad be merciful (Matthew 5:7);

We can die to our need for the world's distractions and instead be pure in heart (Matthew 5:8);

We can die to our need for life to be fair and instead be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9);

We can die to self-preservation and instead rejoice amidst persecution (Matthew 5:10-12).

Consider reading each Scripture reference and taking a few minutes to pray for each point.

Or consider stopping for five minutes every hour on the hour to pray for a different prayer point while reflecting on each Scripture reference.  

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SOME ANONYMOUS REQUESTS MADE BY OUR PEOPLE:

I need to die to lust, ungodly anger.

Freedom from anxiety over my health and worst case scenario thinking.

I want to die to my despair of how much junk I have to take from my kids attitudes, sadness or anger. I get bitter and cold at times when they approach me.

I want to be able to express true joy rather than battle with depression, and be freed from my occasional evil desires of reciprocation upon those who have grievously wronged me.

Please pray for my parents.

I need to die to passivity when it comes to a relationship conflict; need strength and a desire to be a peacemaker. 

I need to die to anxiety that comes from trying to protect my kids and instead trust God with the things I get anxious about for them.

I need to die to my fears of the unknown future, and health, so I can love recklessly with Christ's strength, my family and friends, coworkers for God's kingdom.

I want to die from the need to control and seek perfection in my home from minor things like keeping the house perfectly clean to controlling decisions and feeling frustrated when things aren’t done my way. I want to be free from feeling anxiety when things are not in my control.

Die to my selfishness, pride & the need to be better that others.

I need to die to my fears of the unknown future, and health, so I can love recklessly with Christ's strength, my family and friends, coworkers for God's kingdom.

I want to stop living in fear of the unknown & give myself a brake. I want to be able to trust the world again so I can move forward in peace. I want to forgive myself so I can stop crying over things I can't control I Pray to put more love in this world Amen

To add a prayer request, click here. 

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WHY FASTING? 

Fasting is not about punishing ourselves; it's about humbling oursleves.

It's not about earning anything from God; it's about expressing our dependence on God. 

It's not about abstaining from joy; it's about feasting more on God, who is the source of all joy. 

Thank you for joining us!