Start of the year fast
The Idea
Starting January 1st of every year we give everyone both willing and able the option to join us on a corporate fast that lasts the first week of every year, but then some individuals chose to go longer on their own, there are various types of fasts that people do, and we have listed some of them below but you can make your commitment to give up something else during that time frame if that’s what you feel like you should do, or if you can’t fast certain things due to your job, health or other issues that prohibit you from fasting in certain ways.
If you are interested in joining us in fasting and praying continue reading below to think through what type of fast you want to do, what the commitments and purpose of a fast is, and to join us in prayer both privately and corporately.
Pick a Fast
Liquid/water Fast
The liquid fast is the easiest to explain and yet very hard to do, the idea is that you would fast any and all food except for liquid if health permits, the idea is to remind yourself that “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4)
Just as we depend on food for the nourishment of our bodies so much more do we rely on God the sustainer of our life, and in letting this go for a short time we remind ourselves continually of the fact that as much as we need food, even more do we need the grace of God to sustain our life, and as much as our bodies ache for food, so much more do our souls ache for our heavenly nourishment.
To underline, if you do this fast you must make sure that you drink a lot of water, for a healthy individual not eating food for a few days does no harm to the body, but if you do not drink enough liquids it can have major health issues.
“Sunrise to sunset” Fast
Throughout human history in different cultures including back in the day in Jewish cultures, this fast was typical, where you fast from sunrise to sunset, now in Iceland in January that’ll be around a 5-hour fast which you can do, or you can simply create a timeframe when sunrise and sunset normally happens, for instance, a window between 8 am and 6 pm.
This might be good for people who work jobs with a lot of physical effort where strength is needed.
Daniel Fast
A Daniel fast is modeled after Daniel 1:8-16, particularly verse 12 where he asks to eat only water and vegetables, some people add fruit to this fast, but the idea is to limit yourself in what you eat during the timeframe of a fast.
Media Fast
Media fast was obviously not a thing in Biblical times, but as media consumes more and more of our lives, constantly offering distractions, fighting for our attention, and using up valuable time, many have taken it upon themselves to limit media entirely from their lives for fasts to rid themselves of distractions to have time to dedicate to prayer and the reading of God’s word.
This might also be a very good option for those who don’t want to commit to a food fast because of physical health or need physical strength during workdays.
Make Commitments
Purpose
Once you’ve decided which fast to take then we have to remember the purpose of the fast, especially as fasts have become more popular in recent years mainly for health benefits.
The purpose of the fast is to remind ourselves that our ultimate blessing is not in the various physical blessings of God but rather the ultimate blessing that we get to be with him forever, and can boldly approach the throne of grace (Mark 2:19-20, Hebrews 4:6)
Another purpose of the fast is to remember that as our bodies long for physical food, our souls yearn for the heavenly banquet, and our lives are ultimately sustained not by the food that gives nourishment but by our God and Savior (Matt. 4:4, Mark 2:19-20, Luke 22:18)
Another purpose of a fast is to make time to feed and nourish ourselves Spiritually when we otherwise would be nourishing ourselves physically, and using the time saved to spend it in prayer and meditating on the instructions of God (Psalm 1:1-3).
Prayer & Reading
With the last point in mind, we aim to use the time we’d spend eating at breakfast, lunch, or dinner to pray and to meditate on the instructions of God that feed our souls, we’re inviting you to pray over multiple areas as you will see below.
One thing that needs to be clarified is what is meant by “meditating” in the Christian sense of the word, especially in our modern context where the word “meditation” brings to mind people sitting in strange positions humming strange sounds or doing their best to empty their minds completely.
In some ways the Christian use of the word is the exact opposite of what a lot of modern people think meditation is, as eastern religions focus on you emptying your mind, Christian meditation is to fill your mind of the truths of God, to dwell on them, to apply them, to pray for them and through them.
Prompts
One of the benefits I find in fasting is that it offers up natural promptings throughout the day to remind you of the purpose of the fast, when you feel hunger pangs, you can either choose to dwell on the difficulty of the fast or use that as a reminder to pray, pray that God would nourish your soul, pray that others would strive for the feeding and satisfaction of their souls to be found in Jesus, pray that you would hunger after God as your body hungers after bread, and praise God for the fact that he sustains your life through the bread of life, that is, Jesus Christ.
If you chose a media fast the prompts can simply be feelings of boredom, take heed of these prompts and let them drive you to the throne of grace, and be trained in this way to pray continually and without ceasing (1. Thessalonians 5:17)
Prayer Points
Scripture
As you meditate on the Word of God pray through the Word, it may be praying the promises God has made to his people back to Him, or when you see something in the life or sayings of Jesus that you don’t see in yourself for him to make you more like Him, it may be simply praying through Psalms many of which are prayers, or using the teachings of Christ like the Lord’s prayer as a template of how you pray… There you see him reminding us of our relationship with Jesus (Our Father), Praising and glorifying God (Holy is your name), prayers for his will to be done and his kingdom to expand (Your kingdom come), prayers for needs (Give us this day our daily bread), prayers repentance and ability to forgive others (Forgive us our debts), prayers for deliverance from sin (Lead us not into temptation).
Here are some 2 examples from the sermon on the mount for how you can pray the Scriptures:
Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
Prayer of repentance: Father would you kill my propensity for pride and self-sufficiency, as I know that all I have is because of you, my very life is created and sustained by you, without you I am nothing, and yet my flesh so easily forgets my full dependency on you, help me realize just how destitute I am without you, help me not live for my own glory, my own pride, building my own kingdom, but rather be a part of your kingdom, giving you glory.
Matthew 5:14-15 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.”
Praying the promises of God: Father, when I see my track record of failure and sin it can seem so strange that you promise that you will use me as a part of your light to the world, and yet I will not give heed to my doubts, but rather your promises and ability to make it so, Father I pray that I would carry the torch of the good news of Jesus with me wherever I go, that I would be a light in dark places and dark circumstances, give me eyes to see the opportunities you’ve placed in my way to be that light, and help me not be filled with timidity as I try to hide the light, but rather in gospel boldness seek to be that light, not so that people would see me, but rather see you at work in and through me to the praise of Jesus.
Yourself
As you start to pray, a helpful tool is to think of praying in concentric circles, starting with you, then the people closest to you (family and friends), then a little further out (church), then town, city or nation (country) and lastly the world.
No one can disciple you as God can, he has given you the Holy Spirit to transform you, to equip you, to give you words to speak and to make you a better follower of Jesus, people can point you to the stream of life, even drag you to it, but they cannot make you drink it.
In prayer you are coming to the very one who will make you more like Jesus, you are reminding yourself of this awesome relationship you have because of Jesus, praising him for his goodness, laying your anxieties and needs at the feed of our creator, the very one who upholds the sun, moon and earth in space hanging on nothing, there is no one who can impact your life more than God.
Come to him pleading for forgiveness of sins and praising God for not only listening to your prayers but rather you also having a very willing Savior in Jesus Christ who grants forgiveness of sins.
Family & Friends
Pray for those closest to you, to come to faith, grow in faith, for their eyes to see and ears to hear of the goodness of Jesus Christ, for them to taste the hope and joy you’ve gotten to taste in Jesus.
Pray that you would be a light in their world, maybe even write down names of family members who don’t know Jesus to pray for them specifically to come to saving knowledge of Jesus, and for you to see the opportunities God may be granting you to speak of Jesus and show Jesus in your actions, words and life.
Church
Pray for the people in our church, for them to grow in faith, for them to identify and cultivate the God-given gifts they’ve been given to build up the church, pray for unity, pray for leaders to be raised up, and the children among us to grow in understanding of the beauty of the good news of Jesus, and that we may celebrate a future where we not only see kids grow up physically but give their lives to Jesus, get baptized and grow in faith.
Pray for those who serve in leadership positions to lead well reflecting godly character and applying biblical wisdom, and pray for those who serve, that they would not “grow tired in doing good”, but would be sustained by God’s grace to continue in their calling to use their gifts to the benefit of the church.
If you’re a member of the church, and you want to pray for other members of the church I recommend going to our Membership Directory on our website where we have pictures and info for the other members so that you can pray over that.
Lastly, when it comes to church, don’t simply pray for our church but the church as a whole in Iceland, that we would see more churches raised up, the gospel preached clearly and God glorified through the faithfulness of his church in Iceland.
Country
Ultimately pray for dead hearts to be revived by the grace of Jesus, for people to come to know him, for revival to happen and for the church to be faithful in reaching lost souls with the glorious good news of Jesus, pray for the political leaders of our country “and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Tim. 2:2).
World
Lastly pray for the world, for the kingdom of God to grow, for our brothers and sisters in different nations and contexts, for God to work in and through them, pray for more people to come to know Jesus and his grace.
This task may seem a bit too big to do, but there are resources out there like operationworld.org where you can either look up countries or follow their calendar where they present you with a different country each day to find information on each one, be it their size or population, but also the state of Christianity which gives you information on how to pray.
Please consider joining us on this fast, and if not now, consider a time this year when you could do a fast by yourself, I hope this will be a good resource as you think through what types of fast to choose, the purpose of it and how and what to pray for.
