Fasting for the Future--my daughter's first fast

Our church elders had asked the church body to fast and pray for a day about our church growing in the future. We don't know if we are to build new or buy an existing building, or what, but we do know we need more space for the existing body AND share Him with the world.

Briefly, our pastor shared three reasons to fast:

1. To discipline our body.
2. To humble the spirit.
3. To present special prayer requests.

We knew we wanted to participate and to include mija. We discussed it and prayed about it. I even ask some ideas on my blog's Facebook page. (If you haven't like my blog's Facebook page, you can go do it now.  I'll wait for you to come back.)

We gave her three options:

1. Not to participate--I didn't like this one, but hubby wanted her to either participate sincerely and willingly or not at all.

2. Partial participation--We defined this as meals but no snacks.

3. Full participation--We chose to drink juice, milk, water, etc., but no food.

We let her pray and sleep on it and let us know the next morning how she was choosing to be a part.

She chose to do a partial fast. In fact, she did more than partial because they only thing she ate during the fast was a small lunch of fish sticks. She didn't complain or whine the whole time. There were a few times she mentioned being hungry, and we reminded her that when she felt hungry, that was the perfect time to pray for the church. It was so sweet to stop what she was doing and take time to pray.

It was great last night at church. We broke our fast by celebrating the Lord's Supper. Any answers yet? Nope. It's so cool, however, to attend a church that prays and fasts before even pursuing to build or buy a new building!


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