Week of Prayer and Fasting January 2025
Next week, we’re inviting everyone to join us for a special Week of Prayer and Fasting, running from Sunday 26th January to Friday, 31st January.
As a church, we’ll be taking time to breathe in God’s presence and breathe out His love into the world. Through prayer and intentional living, we want to encounter God deeply, see lives transformed, and seek His justice and revival in our communities.
Each day will have a focus, starting with Breathing In—encountering God’s presence personally and as a church—and moving to Breathing Out—living out His presence in our families, workplaces, and wider communities.
Fasting
Wherever you’re at with fasting I’d encourage you to take a step during this week. If you’ve never fasted in prayer before this is a great opportunity to start, and try fasting in some way or another. This is a great quote from Andrew Murray, the South African pastor:
“Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God.”
So why not try fasting something through the week whether that’s:
fasting a single meal
food for 24 hours or more
social media
Television
Alcohol
Consider how you might make a sacrifice through fasting to commit yourself to Jesus, and to seeking his Kingdom.
A few important things:
For health reasons total food fasts for a day or more aren’t recommended for anyone under 16, expectant or breast-feeding mothers, or anyone with a medical disorder affected by diet like Diabetes.
We also recommend that food fasts should not be entered into by anyone with a history of eating disorders.
If you want to take on a total food fast for an extended period (multiple days or weeks), don’t make the decision alone. Consult your doctor for a recommended diet in the run up to and end of the fast.
For more guidance on fasting, check out the 24-7 prayer website for great resources here and here
Opportunities to Gather
We’ll also have opportunities to gather as a site to pray and worship:
Sunday 26th 8-9pm – Gunville Methodist Church – Prayer and Worship Night - Come to breathe in, be filled with Jesus’ love and power as we launch into this week of prayer and fasting.
Tuesday 28th *(CHANGED DAY – was originally Monday) – 1-1:40pm – Online Prayer with Katie Wigley – on Zoom – sign up here to get the link to join the meeting
Thursday 30th – 9:30-10:30am – Morning Prayer at Andy and Naomi’s House – click here to sign up and to find the address.
Friday 31st – 7:30-9:30pm All Island Worship Event – Cowes Enterprise College – With Speaker and Author Patrick Reagan
Personal Devotion through the Week
To help you engage throughout the week, we encourage you to make use of these resources:
Prayer Week guide – Attached here – we’ve put together a few prompts to help us pray this week, through the themes of Breathing in God’s Spirit and Breathing out through prayer for breakthrough.
Lectio 365: A free app that guides you in prayer through scripture at the beginning, middle, and end of your day.
Simon Benham’s Prayercast: A daily 15-minute guided prayer session, live every weekday morning on Facebook 6:45am and available to catch up after.
24/7 Prayer Resources: Free downloadable guides to help you pray, including tips on fasting.
Kerith’s 1 Hour Guided Prayer: A helpful audio podcast we’ve put together to guide you through an hour of prayer.
Visit the Prayer page on our website at kerith.church/prayer for more resources and inspiration.
Let’s come together to seek God in a fresh way and step into all He has for us. We’re excited to see what He will do through this time of prayer and fasting!