Courageous Joy

You are receiving this email because you indicated your desire to participate in a fast for marriage on 26/27 Feb, or you indicated that you were still praying about doing so. If you receive this and you did NOT email to participate *I* have not emailed this to you. Ladies, please do NOT forward this letter on to others. I assured ladies that their requests would only go to those who emailed me with their intention to fast. Text without requests will also be posted on my blog.


Dear Friends,

Wow. I’m amazed at God. What an experience it has been to call my dear sisters in Christ to fast for their marriages and for marriage in general! I was unprepared for the response. God has been moving so sweetly in our midst…laying the very same burden on many women around the country. I’m amazed at women who are fasting in Hawaii, fasting on vacation, fasting for two whole days (I’m praying about joining you on this one). By this time you have prayed about participating, you have prayed about a day and hopefully you have prayed about the type of fast you will be doing (partial, food, activity). Now it simply remains to “do it”.

I’m hearing from many that God has led individuals, groups and churches to reclaim spiritual disciplines (not in a legalistic sense…out of a heart of intimacy and gratitude to Christ). What a confirmation. I was unprepared to have several email me and ask for “Scriptural Proof” that Christians are to fast. For these dear sisters the concept was totally new. I delighted in the “Berean” attitude that would cause them to search the Scriptures diligently before joining a “band wagon”.

I’ve tried to answer most questions on my blog. At the end of this message I will list the dates and titles of entries on fasting. I will not copy it all here….as many won’t need all the “nuts and bolts”. {G}

OK –We’ve had a few specific requests that I will list here. May our fasting arise from an intense need to hear God and not to shout at Him.

In my time of prayer over this I have felt God giving me three words for our fast.

Believe – let’s BELIEVE that God wants to work, restore and repair marriages. Let’s pray for a generation that would BELIEVE in marriage. Let’s pray that women and men would turn to the Creator of marriage and BELIEVE most of all in Him. Let’s pray that men and women would fall passionately in love with JESUS and then with each other.

Hope – literally translated in Scripture to mean “an eager expectation”. This is closely tied in with BELIEVE. Let’s pray for those who are feeling “hopeless” to be given a new HOPE in Christ. Pray that we would have HOPE for what God would want our marriages to be. Pray that HOPE would be birthed in seemingly hopeless situations as we do battle for each other's marriages

Value – Let’s pray for our generation and for generations of children to see and be taught the VALUE that God places on marriage. In my prayer time I’ve come back to this again and again. Our society has de-valued marriage. We’ve allowed marriage to be de-valued. It’s time for us to begin to recognize and encourage others to recognize the value of the marriage relationship. I am especially concerned for children here. Please pray that our CHILDREN would see the VALUE in marriage as they observe our marriages. Pray that God would mend your marriage if needed so that it would reflect this VALUE to your children. Pray that generations to follow us would benefit from the stance we take for marriage this week.

*How awesome is our God! Organizing this has been stretching for me. I’ve been timid to share. What an amazing thing that as this sat on my desktop I received TWO emails from TWO different sisters telling me that in THEIR prayer time God is leading them to the words “Believe and Hope” and the other one mentioned “value and generational strongholds”. Wow…..God is so very sweet to send encouragement my way! What a God we serve!


Specific Requests (in addition to the above – directly copied from emails – REMOVED FROM BLOG)


If any of you send in victories that you attribute to this time of fasting I will share them (anonymously – unless you request to be known) with THIS list of those who have participated in the fast and will post them on the blog.

Standing with you, dear sisters in Christ!
De’Etta

More posts on fasting at http://not2many.blogspot.com
Feb 12 – MOTIVES (I’ll share now that I was trying to figure out if I should speak about fasting and what would others think – or remain secret ala Matt 6).

Feb 14 – Friends, Lady Friends…call to fast for marriages

Feb 14 – instructions and links to study tools for a topical study

Feb 15 – Bill Bright’s booklet on fasting

Feb 20 – low blood sugar/nursing – things we can fast from

Feb 24 – Motivation in Fasting

Feb 24 – Fasting in Scripture