Happy New Year, Faith Center!
We’re excited to start off 2025 with an opportunity to focus our hearts and mind by joining the rest of Foursquare in 21 Days of Prayer & Fasting! Whether this is your first time practicing fasting or if fasting is a regular rhythm in your walk with God, we’re praying that the upcoming weeks will be marked by meaningful, powerful encounters with Him.
As we’ve spent time preparing for this fast, we’ve felt a specific call to use our time of corporate fasting and prayer to follow a rhythm of worship, purification, and perception that, Lord willing, can create space for God to attune our spiritual eyes and ears to see and hear Him more clearly. This rhythm follows the one that Pastor Steve pointed out in his sermon on Isaiah 6, in which Isaiah’s own transformative encounter with God follows a flow of worship, purification, and perception that culminates in Isaiah’s commissioning as a prophet of Israel.
During the fast, we’ll be creating intentional, temporary vacancies within our day-to-day lives, whether it be an absence of food, social media, or something else that the Lord might be calling you to temporarily lay down. But rather than simply allow those vacancies to be filled with other items on our to-do lists or different hobbies, we’re looking to fill those gaps in our daily routines with a purposeful focus on prayer that retrains our hearts and minds to center on God. We’d love to invite you to fast and pray along with us—either in spirit or in person, or both—as we seek to fix our hearts, minds, and lives on God in 2025.We’ve got a few ways for you to be involved, so please feel free to participate in as many (or as few) of these avenues as you feel called to!
Weekly Emails
For each week of the fast, we’ll focus on a member of the Holy Trinity as a way to reorient our attention and affection toward God. At the beginning of each week, you can expect an email newsletter from Relay with a brief devotional and passages from Scripture to help guide your prayers throughout the week.Although an entire week might feel like a long time to meditate on a single member of the Trinity, we’re praying that our efforts to slow down will create space for God to speak and move that result in a new, different depth of worship, meditation, and communion with Him.
Week 1: God the Father
We’ll start off the fast by focusing on the holiness of God the Father that leads us into both awe of who He is as well as repentance for our own brokenness.
Week 2: God the Son
In the second week of the fast, we’ll turn our hearts and minds to Jesus Christ, spending time meditating on his death and resurrection, as well as the new life He gives us.
Week 3: God the Holy Spirit
To wrap up the fast, we’ll spend time discerning the Holy Spirit’s call for each of us in our particular seasons of life.
We’re hoping that these emails can provide starting points for you in your personal times with the Lordthat simply create room for Him to speak into your specific life, circumstances, and needs.
If you haven’t already, make sure to sign up for the Relay mailing list to receive our weekly emails.
Visit the Prayer Room
In addition to our weekly emails, Relay will also be hosting a few additional opportunities here at Faith Center to gather, pray, and worship together in person.
Throughout the fast, the Prayer Room will be open during the following additional times:
Morning: Tuesday, January 7– 6:30am-7:30am
Evening: Tuesday, January 7– 6:30pm-7:30pm
Morning: Tuesday, January 14 – 6:30am-7:30am
Evening: Tuesday, January 14 – 6:30pm-7:30pm
Morning: Tuesday, January 21 – 6:30am-7:30am
During these times, you’re welcome to stop by the Prayer Room to spend time with the Lord on your own, receive prayer from a member of Faith Center staff or the Relay team, or pray with other members of our Faith Center community. Whether you’d like to come for the entire hour or just a few minutes, we’d love to see you there!
Tuesday Night Church
To commemorate (and celebrate!) our final week of the fast, we’ll be holding Tuesday Night Church on January 21, from 6:30pm-7:30pm. We’ll spend dedicated, extended time in both worship and prayer together as a community as we seek God together for ourselves, our church, and our community. We’ll have childcare for children up to 5 years old, so feel free to bring the littles with you!
Creating Space for God’s Glory
Regardless of how you choose to participate in this time of fasting and prayer, our hope is that God will honor your obedience and sacrifice by offering you a grander view of Himself in all His glory. We pray that you encounter God in an intimate, transformative way that leads you into deeper worship of Him, more abundant joy in His gift of salvation, and greater vision for His call on your life in this season.
We’re looking forward to these upcoming opportunities to gather, worship, pray, and fast together as a community, and we’re excited to hear about all the different ways you each sense God showing up during our time of fasting and prayer!
Blessings,
Chris & Olivia Matsuoka