It's not too late to participate in a 21-Day Fasting and praying emphasis to start the new year. At our church we have traditionally challenged our congregation to set aside 21 days in the month of January to focus on God as we participate in a fast for the purpose of hearing His voice regarding His plans for our lives as we set our intentions, goals and strategies for our year.

Here is a link to an article that explains what fasting is and why we participate in it: 

Fasting: What it Is, Why We Practice It and How We Do It

And here is the 21 Day prayer guide we are using this year:

This year we will focus our prayers on these things (rotating every 7 days to correspond to the days of the week):

Sundays: Marriages and other relationships

Mondays: Finances and other overwhelming needs

Tuesdays: Prodigals and other spiritual breakthroughs

Wednesdays: Health and losses

Thursdays: Salvation for the lost

Fridays: Direction and discernment

Saturdays: Encouragement to overcome: Fear,...

In all my years as a Christian, I've never thought about it before Sunday when Sam mentioned it in his sermon. His 3rd point in a message based on the passage of Scripture in Numbers 14:5-10 was this: 

"I forgot the promise in the Promised Land." 

The Israelites sinned against God  by forgetting that He always...always...always keeps His promises! 

They followed a God who proved Himself faithful over and over again as they wandered in the desert and yet, when it came time to actually get. to where they were going, they forgot.

Aren't we like that too?

Don't we sing those great songs in our services on Sunday mornings, then crawl out of bed on Tuesday and face our struggles as if He's determined to let us down?

I think the problem is that we expected the "Promised Land" to be handed to us without a fight. We feel the spit of the giants we face and back down. We draw up in little balls and cry about being abandoned by the very God who brought us to this...

This is the 3rd and final post in my series on "Why the Church Needs to Pray" be sure to scroll back and read the other 2 posts. In this article I want to introduce you to 3 Praying People Whose Lives are Living Proof of what happens when prayer is priority.

E.M. Bounds (1835-1913)

Edward McKendree Bounds died in 1913 and yet he has a facebook page and website today. I wonder if he knows that. E.M. Bounds lived his life from 1835-1913, serving in the ministry during the tumultuous years leading up to, during, and after the Civil War. He was a chaplain for the confederate army and even served time in prison (in Nashville, TN!). Fortunately for us, he spent much of his time writing. His books on prayer are CLASSICS because their words continue to bear fruit for the kingdom today. 

E.M. Bounds on the priority of prayer: 

"What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use men of...

I love that we've begun a new thing that has become a church-wide trend. Many of our churches ring in the new year with an emphasis on prayer that includes a 21-Day fast.

I'm writing this post on Day 2 of our 21 days and am feeling the physical  and spiritual effects of this fast already! Every year we challenge our congregation to join us in a fast. We provide resources to help them know what fasting is all about, and we create a daily devotional guide to accompany them along the way.

In order to hold each other accountable, we ask participants to sign-up by giving us their email address. These emails go right into an online group where we can send the group emails of encouragement along the way. And, because we want our people fasting and praying MORE than just for 21 days in January, we use these 3 weeks as a time to recruit them to become a part of our ongoing prayer and fasting team. I share with you what that team does in this blog post, What is a Prayer and...