Day of Prayer and Fasting

Bethel will observe a day of prayer and fasting with the entire Orthodox Presbyterian Church on Saturday, Aug. 21. The General Assembly called for this observance so the whole church may pray as one people. This enables us to call upon the Lord with one voice so we may lament our distress and unworthiness before the Lord, confess our sin, and commit ourselves anew to the faithful service of the Lord our God. This also means that we may humbly implore God to send seasons of refreshment, pour his Spirit of wisdom upon us, and draw multitudes to the hope of the gospel by granting faith and repentance to life.

Our denomination’s Directory for Worship states that “[w]hen great and notable calamities come upon or threaten the church, community, or nation, when judgment is deserved because of sin, when the people seek some special blessing from the Lord . . . it is fitting that the people of God engage in times of solemn prayer and fasting.”

If you’d like to know more about fasting from the scriptures, read Ezra 8:21-23 (here quoted from the English Standard Version) where God’s word reads: “that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods … So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.”