Today, our focus at church was prayer. It fits so nicely with the Daniel Fast, because a deeper prayer life and more meaningful connection to God is the real focus of the fast, not suffering by giving up food or a desire to lose weight or become more healthy. Those may be by-products, but they are not the focus of the fast.
Tonight at our Healing Service and time of prayer, Lisa, one of the fasters, shared pieces of a journal she has been keeping throughout the fast. It chronicled the physical changes she's been undergoing during the fast, and it ended yesterday with a reflection on how good she was feeling. She captures the essence of the end of the first week of fasting - we move through the physical changes of cravings, caffeine withdrawal and hunger and into a state of equilibrium and peace. I pray that as we begin the second week of the fast (we're 1/3 done!) that we will be able to focus less on the food part and more on the connection part.
Lord of all life, thank you for this day set apart to worship and praise you. You freely give us the gift of prayer to connect ourselves deeply to your heart for us and for the world. Thank you for that gift and for the possibilties that come from this fast of extending that connection in new and rich ways. As we begin the next stage of our fasting journey, shift our focus away from food and totally toward you. Today, on this day of worship, we pray for all of those in our families, our neighborhoods and our community who have not experienced to love and power of your saving grace through Jesus Christ. Fan the flame of your Spirit that is in each of us and show us how to invite, explain, welcome and love others into a relationship with Jesus. We pray this through him, Amen.
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