As followers of Jesus, all of us need to make the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and worship part of our normal lives, and at The Gathering, we set aside the First Tuesday of every month to intentionally fast and pray for God’s glory to encompass our homes, our county, and our world.

First Tuesdays combine 2 of the values we hold:

“We value Unwavering Prayer and expect our desperate cries to change the spiritual atmosphere around us.”

“We value Uncontainable Growth and expect and prepare for the Lord to multiply His kingdom exponentially through us.”

Whether you fast one meal or one day, we encourage you to take the time you would have eaten to give sacrificially in prayer for the needs of others around us, and specifically to the prayers for people to be brought near God by salvation through Jesus Christ.

Spend time during one or all meal times praying for the following needs:

• Pray for the Lord to raise up laborers for the harvest (Luke 10:2)
• Pray for The Gathering as we equip and send those laborers into the harvest (Luke 10:3 and Ephesians 4:11-12)
• Pray for The Gathering to grow deeper in authenticity and as a place where people can be safely known
• Pray for God to continue to stretch us through ministry that is greater than our resources
• Pray for spiritual discernment and spiritual protection for the leadership at The Gathering
• Pray for salvation, healing, and deliverance in our region

 

Reasons to fast:

1. To increase our understanding of Scripture (Daniel 9:1-3)
2. To gain guidance from the Lord in tough situations (2 Chronicles 20:1-4)
3. To see God’s agenda accomplished in us and others (Isaiah 58)
4. To fine tune our ability to hear God’s direction (Acts 13:1-3)
5. To discipline our bodies (1 Corinthians 9:27)
6. To fight spiritual warfare (Mark 9:29)
7. To repent (Nehemiah 1:4-6)

 

When we fast, we abstain from something physical in order to obtain something spiritual.

Fasting is “the voluntary denial of a normal function for the sake of intense spiritual activity.” (Richard Foster, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, p. 160)