Tuesday one prayer

Daily Devotion June 17: Fasting Focus: Miracles

Today, Tuesday, I am in prayer and fasting (no meat, no sugar) for my local church's diversity. I pray that our attendance will double and that our racial, economic, and cultural diversity will increase. I pray that we will challenge and excite each other with new insights and understandings. And let this excitement be a testimony to the God who makes this miracle possible.

Today's devotional emphasizes these elements of prayer: Audacity, Accuracy, Action.
The Accuracy reminds me of the teacher thing of making objectives measurable.

Tuesday's one prayer activity

Tuesday: We will fast together and pray for salvations. Go to the website to write the first name of someone you are praying will come to know Christ.If you can't fast, you might devote an hour to praying for salvations by sacrificing your time from the TV or another activity.

According to Baptist theology, Gareth is saved already, but I'll pray for him anyway.
I also want to pray for Anne, a dear internet friend, and Lena, a neighbor.
I'll fast from sweets, meat, movies and drama.

Fasting with a friend

A woman I work with is also doing a Daniel fast, so I asked where she ate her lunch. Today I joined her. She is a great encourager. Some weeks ago I had mentioned that I lost my stagefright when I first became a Christian and she responded with one word "Boldness!" That one word showed me that it wasn't as trivial a gift as I'd often thought.
So today at lunch I was telling her about my continuing efforts to memorize Ephesians 6:13+ and I was telling her that I would have to think a lot to understand the part about my feet being fitted with the readiness that comes with the gospel of peace. And she said "You're doing it now, by memorizing scripture and being ready to use it." She's quick. It's a blessing to know her.

Fasting

The thorn in my side goes by the name of gluttony. If it can be overdone, I can do it. Food, books, ... I even think of my thirst for skills as a form of gluttony. As a brand new Christian, I was intrigued when I heard about fasting. And after hearing Chuck Swindoll do a series on Esther, I started to notice how often fasting went hand in hand with prayer in the Bible.

At Shelfari, in the Spiritual Formation Group, we are discussing fasting in Chapter 4 of Spirit of the Disciplines. I may have come across Foster's Spirit of the Disciplines when I was searching for fasting in the public library. (My fellow Southern Baptists wouldn't have recommended anything unless it was published by Lifeway!)Now 12 years later, I'm diabetic and don't fast from food completely. But yesterday I started a 10 day Daniel fast and that seems like it may be a good way for me to go.

Yesterday morning I had a strange experience in church. A lady I like to sit with had just recently come out of the hospital. She had been prescribed steroids and was commenting about how much she had been eating and how even her grandchildren were making comments. She has never been one to do good things about her health - she makes me look like a health nut, which is hard to do. (I fear and pray for her health.) During the entire service on this morning she ate an entire bag of pork rinds and a large box of good'n'plenties. I was aghast and speechless (which is unusual for me) Last week I'd read PistolPete's blog entry about public gluttony compared with private sexual behavior and that's all I could think about. She offered me some of her stash and I turned it down ... if I hadn't been fasting from meat products and sweets, I might have had some.