As Christians, we believe that we are positioned to proclaim and point to the only source of all faith, hope and trust - Jesus. Jesus is the only solution to our global, national, and local problems, and even during election seasons, we don't look to the White House for our answers, but to the Word and Spirit of God, as members of God's house.
Our JESUS 2024 series will give us an opportunity to explore together the ways of Jesus through love, grace, humility, and truth in a world that is polarized and a country that is divided. Amidst it all, we want to live as citizens of the Kingdom of God, pledging our first allegiance to Jesus and living according to His Word, His work, and His worth.
The focus points of this series will be:
- To fix our eyes on Jesus as we proclaim the Gospel of Christ and anchor ourselves as citizens of the Kingdom of God,
- To promote unity, prayer, and witness as we collectively participate in God’s mission and trust in God alone as the Savior of the world,
- And to reach out to our neighbors and community with a word of hope, unity, and freedom in the midst of our polarized times.
Between October 14 and November 23, we invite you to join us for regular church attendance, along with with fasting and prayer, in pursuit of Kingdom Citizenship, Unity, Victory, Prayer, Witness, Vision & Trust.
As you determine what you will fast, our suggestion is to reflect upon something that you hunger and thirst for daily (food, drinks, sweets, television/entertainment, social media, shopping, etc.) and surrender it to the Lord for the next 7 weeks.
Please know that we would highly recommend fasting social media and news/media outlets that may cause you to take your eyes off Jesus, rather than fixing your eyes on the Lamb.
What is Fasting?
Fasting is a principle that we see throughout the Scriptures and that Jesus taught His disciples about.
Biblical fasting is a principle that is not about a public spectacle, but rather about us humbling ourselves before the Lord by giving up something in order to hunger and thirst for the Lord and experience His breakthrough in our lives, communities, and world. The concept and practice of fasting is one in which we follow the example of Jesus who “emptied Himself” (Phil. 2:6-11), as we empty ourselves to seek our God and brings our whole selves before Him with prayers, petitions, and a humble spirit.
The time spent in fasting is not so much about the “outcomes” or “production”, but rather about about focusing more on our connection with God. With this understanding in mind, fasting looks like personal repentance and humbly asking God to renew and revive us, and it looks like seeking God for corporate, national, and global breakthrough.
How Do I Fast?
In the Scriptures, we see many types of fasting and various lengths of time allotted for fasting and prayer. Some of these fasts were done partially (refraining from certain foods or drinks) and others were complete (not eating anything or drinking anything). Whether partial or complete, these fasts were all done for a particular purpose.
As a community, we believe the Lord has called us to a certain length of time (October 14 – November 23) and to fast and pray about certain focuses (see the fasting booklet for more information). As a congregation, we would ask for you to join us in fasting and praying about these focal points for the next 7 weeks.
That means that the only thing left for you to prayerfully consider is what you will be fasting. While we highly recommend fasting social media and news/media outlets during this season, we also encourage you to consider a type of food and/or drink fast as we see this to be a powerful model of Scriptural fasting.
Whether it be a partial or complete fast, we encourage you to be prayerful first, to seek medical consultation secondly (if necessary), and to continually come back to the foundation of fasting and praying as an act of humbly seeking God’s breakthrough both personally and communally.
Fasting is not about “succeeding” or “failing”. Rather, fasting is about connection with God through humbly seeking Him in prayer. God is not ready to smite you if you miss a day or eat a sweet. The Lord is joyful that you are willing to sacrifice and seek Him, and He is ready, able, and willing to meet you, hear you, and move on your behalf for personal and corporate breakthroughs.
10 at 10
As part of our corporate time of fasting and prayer, we want to incorporate a time each day that CCF will join in unified prayer. We believe there is power when God’s people come together to pray. We believe that when we are united and we actively seek God for breakthrough, things happen. With that said, please consider praying every day for 10 minutes at 10:00 am as CCF prays together (whether individually or with others) for personal, corporate, national, and global breakthrough.
Fasting Questions:
- What should I fast?
- That’s between you and God. Take some time to prayerfully consider what God is calling you to give up over the next 40 days.
- Can I tell others I’m fasting or what I’m fasting?
- As a church community, we won’t be prioritizing telling each other what we are fasting, but instead encouraging one another to fast and pray. Our hope is that our communication would be more about what God is doing than what we are doing, and we’d propose that your communication about fasting would simply be focused on God’s activity rather than making it publicly known that you are fasting.
- Can I break my fast if people offer me something?
- Early Christians would fast on certain days, and when they were offered hospitality they were encouraged to break their fast to keep their fasting a secret and to engage in connection with those offering them food or drink. It was a way of seeing fasting that didn’t limit it to legalism, but rather kept the main thing the main thing: connection. This is just one way of thinking about it, but we’d encourage you to allow God to lead you and to be encouraged that God won’t cancel out your fasting if you choose to connect with others who offer you something you’re fasting.
- Do I have to fast?
- We aren’t forcing you to participate in fasting and prayer. This is simply an invitation that we believe to be incredibly important for Christ followers, both regularly and during the month of October & November 2024. We’d ask for you to pray about fasting and engaging in this corporate fast before any decision has been made.
- Do I have to pray and fast for only the topics that CCF is focused on praying and fasting for?
- As a congregation, we want to celebrate our unity together in fasting and praying for the topics listed in the overview. We would strongly suggest focusing on these topics during your 7 weeks of fasting and prayer. However, we do not want to force you to only focus on these points. If God leads you to pray for certain things, please know we are 100% for what God calls you to do.
Download and Share
