10 Days:
A TIME of consecration
THURSDAY, March 21ST - Saturday, march 30th
Our Hope Astoria community is setting aside 10 day from Thursday, March 21st through Saturday, March 30th as a special time of fasting and prayer leading into celebrating Resurrection Sunday on March 31st.
WHY ARE WE FASTING AND PRAYING?
The purpose of these 10 days is to consecrate ourselves to God. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines consecration this way:
“to officially promise to give one's time and attention to something”
During this time of consecration, we fast and pray, not because we seek God’s hand to accomplish something for us and not to earn his love. Indeed, God loves us to the utmost already - as he showed on the cross! Rather, we deny ourselves in fasting and we engage intentionally in prayer, because we desire to train our hearts to focus on God before everything else.
We remind ourselves as we fast that our life and well-being depends on God alone, and on God before all else. We remember that we desire Jesus even more than we desire comfort, pleasure, or even food itself. As we pray, we grow in gratitude that God enables us to relate with him and know him deeply, personally, and intimately. We grow as well in knowledge of his character as we pray and spend time with him in scripture. We increase in our surrender to God, our trust & faith in him, our obedience to him, and our intimacy with him as we fast and pray.
We hope you’ll join us in what we expect will be a powerful time for us personally and collectively with the Lord!
WHAT AM I INVITED TO DO?
Decide how you will fast
Set aside time to pray
Engage with community (small group)
HOW CAN I PREPARE & PARTICIPATE?
We encourage you to check out these resources on fasting to learn more about how to engage in this practice, why it is practiced, and different ways you can fast. We encourage you to try a food fast of some sort (if you are medically able). Or you could fast in another sacrificial way (e.g. fasting from streaming services, social media and internet browsing).
During this time of fasting, we encourage you to set aside time to pray. You could spend time praying scripture, going on a prayer walk, praying while listening to worship music, praying the Lord’s prayer, journaling to God, or interceding with a friend - there are many wonderful ways to pray! Be intentional and plan some ways you want to engage with God during this time.
Additionally, we have created a prayer journal with daily devotionals (available as a downloadable pdf). This devotional guide is also available in print form free of charge at our Sunday services during the month of March. We hope this resource will be an encouragement to you, as well as a way for us to be united in prayer and the word of God as a community throughout these 10 days. Even after this time of consecration and prayer is done, we hope this is a resource you could return to for rooting in spiritual disciplines and for encouragement.
Small Groups
Our spiritual life is not meant to be lived solo! We encourage you to check out a small group to get to learn and pray together with others during this special season. There’s nothing like the encouragement of friends to help you persevere in your desire for God, and diverse perspectives bring to spur our growth during this time. Whether you are new to faith or a longtime Christian, and whether you’ve been coming for a long time or this is your first week at Hope Astoria, all are warmly welcome! Simply contact any group leader for meeting details, and to join in! List of groups: http://hopeastoria.org/small-groups
Questions?
If you have any questions, Pastor Kris and Pastor Denise are glad to hear from you. Please feel free to reach out to either of us (contact us buttons are on our staff page).