The Altar
Seven days
A week of consecration
Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.
Joel 2:12 · King James Version
Why this one
A week is long enough to change a pattern rather than interrupt one. Used for repentance, for a turning point, for the start of a season.
The shape of it
Most keep this as one meal a day, or a Daniel-style fast (see below). Full water fasts of this length need medical advice.
What to expect
By day three the hunger mostly stops. Days four to six are where the real work happens — things surface that you have been outrunning.
Breaking it
Two days of gentle eating. Do not go straight back to normal portions.
Day by day
- Day 1 — Set the altar. Why are you doing this?
- Day 2 — Confession. Everything, specifically.
- Day 3 — Forgiveness. Who are you still holding?
- Day 4 — Your household. Name every person under your roof.
- Day 5 — Your work and your provision.
- Day 6 — The thing you are actually asking for.
- Day 7 — Thanksgiving, before the answer comes.
Before you begin. Fasting is a spiritual discipline, not a medical one, and it is not for everybody. Do not fast from food without speaking to a doctor if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, diabetic, underweight, taking medication that must be taken with food, recovering from illness or surgery, under eighteen, or if you have any history of an eating disorder. There is no shame in fasting from something other than food — media, spending, sleep for a night, a habit. God is not measuring your stomach.