This week on Good Friday, our church will join with other Christians across the world for a day of prayer and fasting. During this time, we will lay our fears and anxieties at God’s feet, and ask him for a quick conclusion to this global pandemic. This is a radical act of trusting in the one king who can heal our world.
Good Friday is when we remember that Jesus died on the cross to heal the sin and brokenness of this world—which makes it a good day to pray for healing in our present context.
Our Good Friday Fast & Pray will begin Friday morning with a church-wide prayer meeting over Zoom, led by Kelley Wampler and Pastors Kermit Summerall and Ryan Wampler. We will then fast and pray throughout the day, spending time in personal communion with God at noon that is directed by our Noon Personal Prayer Guide, and culminating in our livestream Good Friday service that evening.
Fasting is a spiritual discipline, where we abstain in some significant way from food and/or drink for a set amount of time. There are many degrees of fasting, but the overall goal is to practice some kind of bodily self-denial in order to remind us of our reliance on God for strength and life. As we experience the discomfort of hunger and lack, we remember how much we need God to fill that need in every part of our lives and in our world.
There is no one correct way to fast. We read in Matthew that Jesus fasted from food and drink for forty days in the wilderness, but we also have the example of Daniel and his friends, who abstained from the bread, meat, and wine of the Babylonian king’s table.
Then, when you would usually eat, use the time to pray or meditate on Scripture instead. If you select this option, consider fasting over the lunch hour and use our guide for a noon personal prayer time (sign up here or at the link below to receive this guide). One thing to keep in mind: be careful not to over-eat during your other meals that day. Instead, look for your contentment and satisfaction in the intentional time you spend with God.
For some of us, it feels unrealistic to miss entire meals, perhaps you have a health condition or an obligation in your schedule that makes doing so unwise. As an alternative, consider following Daniel’s lead and abstaining from meat, bread, and alcohol for the day. Sacrifice your usual morning coffee or after-dinner dessert. Or disconnect from television, social media, or some other form of entertainment. The key is to exercise self-control by saying “no” to something good, in order to fill the empty space in your day with God.
This is the most common way Christians have fasted throughout history. After the sun sets on Thursday, stop eating (no late-night snacks or desserts!). Fast through the morning, lunchtime, afternoon, and early evening. Then eat dinner after the sun sets on Friday. Fasting for this amount of time will be challenging but should stretch you even more to rely on the sustaining presence of God. For encouragement as you lean on God in this way, read through this collection of Bible verses about trusting God in difficult circumstancesor listen to this podcast from Dave Cover where he leads listeners through a meditation on who we are in Christ according to Ephesians 2:1-10.
The key to fasting is not merely self-denial, it is the discipline of replacing a good gift from God that you regularly enjoy with time with God himself. Fill the space in your time and mind that is usually occupied by food (or whatever you’re fasting from) by communing with God instead. Remember the purpose behind the fast and follow through on your plan to pray, otherwise, you’re just pointlessly going hungry.
For more on what to pray during the Good Friday Fast & Pray, sign up for the event on our website. Once you do, you will receive a link to the Friday morning prayer meeting, as well as the Noon Personal Prayer Guide for you to use to pray through the lunch hour.