Like all things in life, there are tips that you can follow to make things more bearable and smoother. Prayer and fasting is no different. There are a number of tips or hints that you can follow to not only make your season of prayer and fasting easier, but also ensure that you make the most of spending more time with the Lord.
In total, there are five primary tips that can help you in your journey.
Plan Food Ahead of Time
Although we’ve already mentioned the importance of planning ahead, that focussed mostly on planning the time that you’ll spend in prayer or reading God’s Word. Another thing that you shouldn’t neglect planning ahead of time is what you’ll eat during your fast.
This is often something that is overlooked and can cause you to settle for whatever you have at hand—even if it isn’t what you should be eating according to your fast. To avoid this, set out specific meal plans that follow your fast (e.g. if you’re doing the Daniel Fast).
Depending on your type of fast, this may mean heading to the shop to get the ingredients you need and ensuring that you have them ready for when your fast begins.
Be Spiritually Prepared
Don’t rely only on the church or the Lord to direct your prayers. While these do help, prepare ahead of time for what you want to cover in prayer. This may be people in your life (such as family members or friends), specific circumstances (like a situation at work or school), or requests that you’d like to bring to the Lord.
During your time of prayer and fasting, be systematic and intentional in working through this list and bringing each item before the Lord.
At the same time, prepare yourself to hear from the Holy Spirit. While you can’t simply wait for things to come to you, God does use a season of prayer and fasting to lay things on your heart and guide your prayer. Therefore, prepare to listen and change your prayers as the Spirit leads.
Prepare Your Schedule
Although this has already been mentioned in how to pray and fast, don’t underestimate the need to prepare your schedule. Failure to schedule time to pray or read your Bible will mean that you can easily let that time slip past.
Therefore, ensure that you add these things to your daily schedule/routine. Do so in a timeslot that you know will remain free even after the season of prayer and fasting comes to an end. This way, you’ll be able to continue the spiritual disciple when life gets back to normal.
Study!
Simply spending time in prayer with the Lord is an incredible way to experience His presence more. However, you should also attempt to increase the time you spend, not just reading God’s Word, but studying it.
This means taking a specific theme, verse, book, or person in the Bible and doing an in-depth study into it. When studying, use proper study techniques such as taking notes and jotting down any questions that may come to you.
With these at hand, you can delve further into the Word to find the answers you’re looking for or ask one of your spiritual brothers and sisters for their interpretation or advice. As you study the Word, God will reveal new things to you and draw you deeper into the Bible.
Relax!
Being in a season of prayer and fasting can be taxing, not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually. Even though this is true, the regular stresses of life (work, school, family, etc.) continue. Each of these things may make it harder to stick to your fast or your scheduled prayer.
To ensure that none of this become overwhelming, ensure that you also schedule some time to relax. This doesn’t mean time where you can watch TV, but rather time where you can simply sit and be quiet.
A good idea is to set aside time where you can play some praise and worship music in the background and simply be in the presence of God. This will allow you to focus on what God is doing and cast whatever burdens you’re carrying onto God.
Other things can be done to make your time of prayer and fasting easier (such as prepping meals ahead of time or using a Bible reading plan to direct your reading). Using these tips doesn’t mean you’re lazy and can’t direct your own season but instead can help you experience the fullness of God during the season without having to concern yourself about logistics.
Doing this can help you experience the incredible time with God that prayer and fasting brings!
If you want more info, download our full Prayer and Fasting Manual here!
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