Prayer and Fasting (Story #1)

I am very far from being an expert but I’d like to share a couple of my experiences and how it impacted my life. I know it’s not a magic and you can’t coerce God into doing things for you but when you see God work through your prayers, it has a profound impact on you. 

I grew up praying. It’s a part of being a Christian. I’ve heard stories of people who spent hours on their knees and/or got up early every day to spend time with God. I think that’s great but I’ve never been very faithful like that. My mind wanders and I’ve heard ways to avoid that but it feels odd to pray out-loud by myself but having a list does help.

I also grew up hearing about fasting and what the Bible taught about it but didn’t know anyone who did it. I didn’t think it was commonly practiced and was mostly used by prayer warriors. I’m not really sure what I thought. I just know that I never considered doing it myself.

STORY #1

It was the beginning of ’94 and I was going to First Baptist Church in Tempe, Az. I had been going there for about 2 years and felt like I was growing spiritually again. We had a great Sunday school teacher for young singles. I made some great friends there. During one of the lessons he taught about fasting and challenged us to try it, even if it was just for a day. I thought, alright, I’ll do it.

So, I picked a day and decided I’d do 24 hours. I fixed a big meal right before midnight and spent the next 24 hours not eating. I was starving. I worked both my jobs and on my way home I stopped off at the grocery store to fix food. At 11pm I’m cooking over a stove and waiting for midnight and then I started inhaling food. What I learned was that the hunger pains reminded me to pray. All I prayed for was direction in my life. It was nothing dramatic but I wanted more but I didn’t know what.

What happened was that a month later God told me to quit my job after I had just gotten a promotion and a month after that I loaded up my car and drove to Pensacola, FL with $200 in my pocket. I arrived with about $25 and some friends let me sleep there a couple weeks until God provided a job and a room I could rent from a guy who had a 2 bedroom apartment.