Our Week of Prayer and Fasting

This week many West Houston folks participated in some way in our five days of “Prayer and Fasting for Breakthrough.” I have been so inspired and touched to hear people comment on what this has meant to them spiritually. My hope and prayer is that each of us can take a stronger spiritual confidence and passion out of this week together, as well as new habits and an appreciation of how powerful it is to create space for God in our lives.

Following are a few of the many testimonies I have received:

* I am one of the ones fasting between sunup and sundown - and I am truly amazed that I have been able to do it...it is not like me at all to skip a meal, much less food all day - but the Lord has truly brought me strength and kept me busy all day long so that I don't have to even think about it. This is the first time I have ever fasted, and I really believe it has strengthened my faith.

* No food since Sunday. Only water, orange juice, Gatorade and my morning sugar-free Red Bull. I have been traveling. I have been content to sit in restaurants with employees and clients and drink juice. I hope the discussion will turn to "why are you doing this?" I am not any more hungry than I was on the first day. I have asked God to take the pains away. I have told him that I am doing this for him and I have faith that he will provide and "fill me" with so much more than food.

* My focus toward God, and more importantly my seeking of his direction this week has been in the forefront of my mind. The absence of food and the pains associated with it have allowed me time to reflect on the blessings in my life, and the call that I have received to be a true disciple and follower of Christ as opposed to just calling myself Christian.

* Being bitter and angry has come out this week for me during my fast and I tried to blame it on my hunger, until my husband pointed it out to me, that my attitude has been bitter and angry long before my fasting. It was like a punch in the gut, but it was the truth.

* I decided no meat and no sweets, no coffee past daylight, only water the rest of the time, and only raw fruits and vegetables during daylight. No television. And pray at least 3 times a day… Every morning I have stopped at the Church Garden to pray at about 5:15 a.m. I leave with a closeness to God I don’t think I have ever felt before as I started my day.

* Suffice it to say, this fast has definitely not been the easiest thing to do, but every hour I continue in it, it seems God reveals something else to me. As a family we have given up TV in the evenings and replaced it with reading and studying the Word. We've given up listening to radio in the car and replaced it with silence, prayer, or conversation when together. I feel more at peace.

* This week has shown me more about my 4-year old daughter than anything else. I told her on Monday that we would not be watching TV this week in order to give us more time to focus on God. Yesterday she told me we were not turning on the TV today. I told her that was right. She told me we were not watching TV because the man who stands up on top of the church told us not to watch TV and to just worry about God.