40-Day Initiative of Prayer, Fasting and Repentance


March 18 - April 26, 2020

Participants will follow the example of men and women of Scripture who humbled themselves and sought the Lord through fasting. Our country needs the spiritual renewal that only God can bring. May He hear our cry and answer! The potential health and economic impact of the coronavirus is not fully known yet, but could be devastating. We desire that God has mercy.

In times of crises, God desires that His people examine themselves and repent of everything displeasing to Him. We are to repent on behalf of ourselves and American Christianity which is largely self-indulgent and does not seek the Lord in holiness or wholehearted devotion. First-century Christians prayed and read the Scriptures every morning and evening, and fasted twice a week. Meanwhile, American Christians spend little energy seeking God and the church is therefore largely powerless. Most Christians don’t give at least ten percent of their income even though we are the richest country in the history of the world, and we pollute ourselves through movies and our own engagement with sexual immorality. 

Starting Wednesday, March 18, 2020, participants will seek God through the Biblical practice of fasting, prayer and repentance. You may choose to fast from all foods for the entire 40 days—drinking only liquids—or you may choose to fast by eating only one or two meals each day. For some, health limitations will require a different type of fast (see fasting resources). However God leads you, we desire to have you be a part, and God will reward you.

Please sign up below to participate. As a participant, you will receive a special devotional by email each morning of the fast offering encouragement as you devote yourself to the Lord in humility and repentance.

May God draw near and bring healing, comfort, and protection to our nation as we seek Him through prayer, fasting and repentance.

Join the Fast

Sunday, April 26, 2020
Evening Devotional for Day 40

Humble Yourself and God Will Restore You

Dimas Salaberrios, Ministry Associate with Christian Union, is a dynamic teacher, speaker, and pastor. His bestselling memoir, Street God, was released in September 2015. Dimas holds a Master of Divinity degree from Alliance Theological Seminary and resides in the Bronx with his wife Tiffany and three daughters.

Transcript
One of the goals that we're doing with this type of video is I want you to have an incredible relationship with Jesus. When I came to Jesus, it was through a power encounter. People prayed for me and the presence of God came all my life and it has never left me. That presence of God was so tangible and so real that it became more important than anything that I saw in this world. And I surrendered all to Jesus. But then, over a period of time, things started to try to creep in, because I realized, "you know what? I need a mate. I need to get married." So I started dating and I did some silly stuff like evangelistic dating, thinking I can date someone that barely knew Jesus and convert them to Jesus. And those kinds of things didn't go well, and I would feel this heavy sorrow because sin started to try to grip me and it started to break that flow that I was feeling of this tangible presence of Jesus Christ.

And I love this verse in the Bible in 2 Chronicles 12:12 where this King experienced this same kind of sorrow in the midst of a battle, in the midst of war. And it says this, "When he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from them so as not to destroy him completely, and things also went well in Judah." This King was going on the downgrade and when he humbled himself and turned his heart back towards God, God spared him and allowed him to have a victory. I love what it says in 2 Kings 22:19—and this is something I think can minister to all of us because over a period of our walk with God, over a period of time, our hearts sometimes can shift. It can become callous, it can become hard to certain things.

There was a point in my walk where I couldn't hear cursing, and now sometimes on television you'll hear it and you'll say, "Ah, you know what? I'll just skip past that. I'll ignore it." But God calls us to have a tender heart. He says this in 2 Kings 22:19, "Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place, you tore your clothes and wept before me." And you know what happened? Once again, it says, "And I also heard you, and then God responded."

When we are willing to humble ourselves before the Lord, and we're willing to admit sometimes that we're allowing things to come in that we didn't before. These are the areas that I see Christians being pounded out on. Are you allowing foul language to just pound you out? Are you letting areas of sin come in that before, you used to reject, and begin to pound down your faith? Do like these men and women of God. Begin to humble yourself, get your heart back to a tender place, and ask Jesus to come in and to wash you and to give you the strength to turn away from those areas and to set your heart on pleasing and following after God. God bless you. Keep looking up, and keep Christ number one. Peace.

4,729 People Fasting

Join with the believers who have committed themselves to fasting for 40 days.

Why Fast?

Fasting was practiced in the Old Testament, New Testament and in church history to engender humility and entreat God for Him to move in extraordinary ways. We need God in the U.S. now more than ever.

Moses fasted 40 days, Nehemiah fasted 120 days, and large numbers of Jews in Esther's time fasted for 70 days in their time of need.

2 Chronicles 7:14 says that when we humble ourselves and confess our sins, God intervenes in history to heal our land. In Psalm 35:13 King David humbled himself through fasting and many others in the Scriptures have done the same to gain favor from God. Moses fasted 40 days, Nehemiah fasted 120 days, and large numbers of Jews in Esther’s time fasted for 70 days in their time of need. Jesus fasted 40 days, Christians in the book of Acts fasted regularly, and believers for 2000 years have sought God through fasting, prayer, and repentance. Thousands of American Christians humbling themselves through an extended fast will be very meaningful to God and will help move Him, according to His Word, to bring change to the U.S.

How to Fast

This initiative of prayer, fasting, and repentance lasts for 40 days, beginning Wednesday, March 18 through Sunday night, April 26, 2020. As a signed-up participant, you will receive an email each morning, featuring a devotional to encourage and motivate you as you fast.

You may choose to fast from foods for the entire 40 days—drinking only liquids—or you may choose to fast by eating only one or two meals each day. However God leads you, we are glad you are a part.

Don't be afraid to take on this biblical challenge to draw closer to God and see Him exalt you as you humble yourself through fasting.

If you don’t have a lot of experience fasting, this may be a challenging endeavor. Christians throughout the centuries have sought God through fasting and have found Him in wonderful ways as a result. Don’t be afraid to take on this biblical challenge to draw closer to God and see Him exalt those who humble themselves through fasting.

Fasting Resources

American Christians are often unfamiliar with the practice even though fasting was common for Christians through the centuries and is regularly done in the international Church. For more information check out this FAQ for Fasting and this curated list of resources.

Sign Up to Start

God's Next Move in America

America’s Christian heritage is among the greatest of all the nations in the world. God’s Kingdom has thrived here through the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s, largely due to nationwide moves of God’s Spirit. We need another history-making move of God. By His sovereign grace, God ensures that we play a part in Heaven’s work. He draws near to us when we draw near to Him (James 4:8). We must ask, seek, and knock for an outpouring of His Spirit (Luke 11:5-13).

“Whenever God is about to do something truly great,
He first sets His people praying!” Matthew Henry, 1662-1714