Fasting is withholding from something we want so we can set our minds and attention on God. Food is an important part of life, but Scripture is full of invitations to go without it for a period of time to connect with God and be more mindful of our reliance on him.

For more on why we fast, check out Doug’s Sermon, Five Reasons Fasting Will Change Your Life.

For more resources on fasting, check out our Discipleship Guide

As we head into 21-Days of Prayer and Fasting, here are four different fasts to choose from. Read through the different fasts and decide which one is right for you this year. If for any reason, you don’t feel comfortable fasting from food, the final option (the soul fast) is for you!

Complete Food Fast
In this type of fast, you drink only liquids. Drink a lot of water, and then add in juice and shakes as needed.

Partial Food Fast
This fast is sometimes called the “Jewish Fast” and involves abstaining from eating any type of food for a certain period of time each day. For example, you can choose to skip a certain meal or abstain from eating until sunset.

Selective Food Fast
This type of fast involves removing certain elements from your diet. One example of a selective fast is the Daniel Fast, during which you remove meat, sweets, and bread from your diet and consume water and juice for fluids and fruits and vegetables for food.

Soul Fast
If you don’t have much experience fasting food, have health (or other) issues that prevent you from fasting food, or if you wish to refocus certain areas of your life that are out of balance, this is a great option for you. For example, you might choose to stop using social media or watching television for the duration of the fast and then carefully bring that element back into your life in healthy doses at the conclusion of the fast.

The next key to making these 21-days successful is establishing a prayer routine that works for your schedule. We are creatures of habit, and the goal for these next three weeks is to establish a healthy habit of prayer we can carry with us for the rest of the year.

Your strategy should consist of three things—a time, a spot, and a plan.

Pick a Time
What is a time that works for you every day? If you have young kids, there is a good chance it will either have to be before they wake up or after they go to bed. It doesn’t matter when it is; just pick the time that is going to be easiest for you to stick to and put it in your calendar right now.

Pick a Spot
Your prayer times will be a lot more consistent if you designate a specific spot for them. Maybe it’s a certain chair or closet. Or maybe it’s your backyard or your car. Again, it doesn’t matter what spot you choose; it only matters that you pick one and stick with it.

Pick a Plan
The best way to ensure you will have success during your prayer time is to go into it with a plan. There are many different models you can follow for this, and in week two, we will walk through one together (praying The Lord’s Prayer). But go into your prayer time with a plan.

One option is to pray through the acronym: ACTS.

Adoration: Start your prayer by praising God for who he is.
Confession: Admit any sin in your life.
Thanksgiving: Next, express gratitude for a few things in your life.
Supplication: Finally, end your prayer by praying for one person.

What if today was the day you established a routine for your prayers. And what if next year at this time, you can look back and know that you’ve prayed every day for the last 365 days? Praying for one day may feel underwhelming, but if you pray every day for a year, the results will be overwhelming!

Start each day by finding a quiet place to sit down for ten minutes and fill out your daily exercise. We suggest utilizing a journal to fill out these four sections:

Gratitude

Life can be stressful, but when you start each day with gratitude, you are deciding to trust in and focus on God’s provision over your problems. Gratitude shifts your perspective; it takes what you have and makes it enough, regardless of your circumstances.

Vision

What is your vision for your future self? Scripture says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). Every day, this journal challenges you to write out three statements that describe who you want to be in the future.

Who do you want to be? (Generous? Empathetic? Joyful? Loving?)

What do you want to be doing? (Running a business? Raising a family? Retiring?)

Why are you doing what you are doing? (What motivates you to do what you do?)

Action

We often overestimate how much we can get done in a day and underestimate how much we can get done in three weeks. The key is consistency in the same direction. This section invites you to write down a small step you will take today to help move you toward your vision of your future self.

Prayer

Prayer is the best way to put down our agenda and trust God. End your time of journaling by writing out a prayer for your day.

Who do you want to be in three months? How about a year? Five years? In order to know where to start, you have to have vision for where you want to go. The next three pages give you space to dream about the future you. Over the next twenty-one days, fill these three pages in with as much detail as you can.

Me in Three Months:

Me in One Year:

Me in Five Years:

Today’s date is: ________________

For the next 21 days, I will be doing a ______________ fast.

During this fast I am praying for: ______________________________________________

For the next three weeks I will journal, pray, and fast every day!

Signature: ____________________________________