Creative Fasting

 This year we have decided to recommend a creative approach to our week of fasting and prayer.  We are proposing a PARTIAL FAST rather than a FULL LIQUID ONLY FAST.  Both types of fasting are equally valid, but this year's partial fast has a very specific purpose.

We want to fast in the spirit of Isaiah 58 this year.  Consider the impact of the following verses (Isaiah 58:6-8):

  "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
       to loose the chains of injustice
       and untie the cords of the yoke,
       to set the oppressed free
       and break every yoke?

  Is it not to share your food with the hungry
       and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
       when you see the naked, to clothe him,
       and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

  Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
       and your healing will quickly appear;
       then your righteousness ^[a] will go before you,
       and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

We are recommending that as we set aside the next week to seek God, that we eat a diet similar to what the poorest of the world experience every day.  Much of the world lives on less than $1 per day.  That works out to a rather small portion of a meal or two of beans for a day.

As we limit our eating to this meager amount, we will pray that God will sensitize our hearts to the needs of the world around us.  We will also encourage those that fast to consider donating the money that they would normally spend on groceries/and eating out for a week...FOOD FOR THE POOR so that we are 'putting our money where our mouth is' (pun intended).

I am very excited at how God is going to use this week of fasting and prayer in my life.  By the way, the promises of Isaiah 58 are powerful.  Read verses 10-12, and claim them for your own life in 2009.