Fast for Gaza

Please join us for a 40 day fast in prayerful solidarity with the appalling suffering in Gaza

This image was created by my friend Ramone Romero who has faithfully and prophetically depicted Jesus with the suffering in Gaza throughout this genocide.

Dear friends,

I hope most of you are aware by now of the global movement to pray/intercede and show solidarity with Gaza through fasting. Several organizations have banded together to launch a 40 day fast, wherein a core group will be together in New York living on 250 calories a day for the next 40 days. The rest of us are invited to join them in whatever measure we are able. Some may want to eliminate certain kinds of foods, or perhaps eat only one meal a day, or fast one meal a day, or stop eating out, or stop buying extra “things” and send that money to feed the hungry instead — whatever works best for you.

If you want to join, please register here.

Hearkening back to my Pentecostal days, I will be joining with a “Daniel” fast. If you recall the Bible story, some of the elite young Israelites were taken captive to Babylon, where, among other things, they were made to eat the finest and most sumptuous foods from the King’s table while being trained in the wisdom of Babylon. Daniel and his friends refused. Here is the story from the first chapter of Daniel:

Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.

At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.

At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.

As I thought about doing a “Daniel Fast” for Gaza, I remembered years ago when I was a young woman consecrating my life to God. While reading my Bible one day and pondering its mysteries and longing for insight, I heard a voice whisper in my heart: Eat as Daniel.

I understood the whisper to refer not just to literal foods, but also things that I feed my spirit with— the delicacies of “Babylon” which still exist today. Paul referred to this as “the wisdom of this world” which is passing away, in contrast to the wisdom which is from “above” and will have the last word over creation.

It is this wisdom that I am reminded of, this wisdom that I desperately need, and perhaps you need too. Wisdom to walk through these most horrific and overwhelming days in ways that will bring LIFE; that will elevate the grace and beauty of Christ in this violent and cruel earth; that will open a way for healing for others. This is my prayer.

The tragedy in Gaza is now beyond description. The UN has predicted that up to 14,000 children will starve to death in the next few days without intervention. After much international pressure, a few food trucks (severely, grossly, wickedly inadequate) have been allowed into Gaza, but until now none of the food has been distributed. Meanwhile, the bombing is heavier than ever, and seemingly even more random than before. These are indeed the worst days of Gaza’s hell.

We know so many of the stories— but when it all comes out, when it is documented, when all is uncovered and made clear, as Omar El Akkad said, “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when its too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will always have been against this.”

God forbid that we should take that morally lazy road that Omar describes. This moment is crucial. Let us be numbered among those who discern God in this suffering, and live accordingly.

If you want to send money to help feed the hungry, you can continue to do so through our partnership with Impact Nations. We cannot get food into Gaza, but we can purchase what remains on the shelves (at locally inflated prices) and distribute it to those who, after close to TWO YEARS of this are destitute, broken and perpetually hungry. We will continue to do this as long as there is food to purchase and as long as we have the money to do it.

Thank you, friends. May God bless and strengthen you. May God bless and strengthen the innocents of Gaza.