Season #2 of Prayer and Fasting
Week 1
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love mercy (kindness),
and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 (ESV)

For this season of prayer and fasting, we will spend the next 3 weeks focusing on different aspects of Micah 6:8. While you are free to abstain from food and anything else the Lord may put on your heart, we are specifically inviting you to fast from specific behaviors and attitudes, replacing them with practices and prayers that honor God and love your neighbor.

Week 1: Doing (Biblical) Justice: to create order or harmony, to set something right (Al Cushway). God is the standard of justice, not man. Therefore, justice that is disconnected from a relationship with Christ is not Biblical justice.

How do we start?
Fast (Abstain, give up):
1. Trying to be right
2. Trying to be first,
3. Trying to win an argument.
4. Complaining about what isn’t right in the world

Practice:
1. Listening
a. Listen deeply to your children, listen deeply to your spouse, to your co-workers, to those that are different from you.
b. Pay attention to the emotions underlying what the person is saying. Ask questions to draw those feelings out.. Listen for the heart.
c. Before responding to someone, listen for what God might have you say to the person.
d. In a world that wants to give answers, ask questions.

2. Giving Preference to Others: Treat other people’s needs as your own.
a. Let people go ahead of you in line.
b. Give to those who have need.
c. In a world that wants to be first, practice being last.

Prayer: You are invited to pray this prayer every day. Pay attention to how your thinking changes, as well as opportunities that arise for you to practice what you pray.

Prayer Of St. Francis
Lord make me an instrument of Thy peace
Where there is hatred let me sow love
Where there is injury pardon
Where there is doubt faith
Where there is despair hope
And where there is sadness joy

O divine Master grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love