Making prayer a habit:
21 days of prayer
Download a 21 Day Prayer and Fasting Tracking guide here.
Make it a priority to seek God first in prayer, trusting in His power alone to create lasting impact in our lives, our church, and our world.
Hosea 10:12 says, “It is time to seek the Lord, until He comes and showers His righteousness on you.”
creating a lifestyle of prayer
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed. MARK 1:35
Prayer is most effective when it isn’t something we do every now and then, but when it’s a lifestyle we nurture. To understand how to have a lifestyle of prayer, we can look at the example Jesus gave during His life on earth.
HAVE A CERTAIN TIME
Jesus got up early in the morning to spend time with His Heavenly Father. Make a daily appointment with God — whether it’s first thing in the morning, at lunch, or in the evening — and faithfully keep it.
HAVE A CERTAIN PLACE
Jesus had a specific place He went to pray. Having a designated place to pray helps us remove distractions and frees us to worship and pray out loud.
HAVE A CERTAIN PLAN
When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He gave them a prayer outline. We call it “The Lord’s Prayer.” This outline, along with several other tools, is available in this guide. As we pray every day, our plans for our prayer time can vary, maybe including worship music, Bible reading, and quiet time to listen to God. It doesn’t always have to look the same; it just helps when we have a plan for connecting regularly with God.
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray…” LUKE 11:1
“Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your Name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” MATTHEW 6:9-13 NKJV
types of fasts
So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty. Ezra 8:23
Soul Fast This fast is a great
option if you do not have much experience fasting food, have health issues that
prevent you from fasting from food, or if you wish to refocus certain areas of
your life that are out of balance. For example, you might choose to stop shopping
online, refrain from using social media or watching television and then use
that time for prayer and Bible study for the duration of the fast then carefully
bring those things back into your life in a healthy measure.
Selective Fast This type of fast involves removing certain elements from your diet. One example of a selective fast is the Daniel Fast, during which you remove meat, sweets, and bread from your diet and consume water and juice for fluids and fruits and vegetables for food. You may also choose to limit your fast to one meal each day, or a short fast for one day per week.
Partial Fast This fast is sometimes called the “Jewish Fast” and involves abstaining from eating any type of food in the morning and afternoon. This can either correlate to specific times of the day, such as 6:00 am to 3:00 pm, or from sunup to sundown.
Complete Fast In this type of fast, you drink only liquids, typically water with light juices as an option. This type of fast is not for everyone, especially for those who have health concerns.
The type or timing of your fast is not as important as the strength of your focus on God as you fast.
