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Each day during the fast, there will be a set prayer focus in addition to our personal prayers. 

Today our prayer focus is Discernment.

Pray for...

  • Ears to Hear God’s direction (Luke 8:8)
  • Clarity. Get rid of brain fog. (Philippians 1:9-10)
  • Obey God’s direction. (James 1:22)

An encouragement from Pastor Hayes:

Luke 18:11-12
11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

    One of the groups of people Jesus had to contend with were the Pharisees. The Pharisees were one of the most religious groups that ever existed. They fasted and prayed twice a week. But it was all on the outside: they thought that religious activities were enough to please God. Fasting is not about the outside of us. Fasting should change our hearts.

    We sin because our hearts aren’t right with Him. We have accepted compromised choices which have allowed behaviors which don’t reflect the relationship we should have with God. That compromise steals from the relationship we do have and may be detrimental to the witness we have in the world.

    This Pharisee was only concerned with how his outside looked and how his outside qualified him to think of himself as right before the Lord. Was he concerned about lust, anger, bitterness or even righteousness? No, only that he was “better than". If he was “better than” then it was enough. 

    But “better than” isn’t what God wants. God wants us to be Christ-like. He wants us to strive to be like Jesus. To humble ourselves and seek righteousness, purity, peace of heart and to forgive others as we are forgiven. Fasting isn’t becoming more religious. It is becoming more like Jesus.