Grace Monroe Watch Week

Prayer, Worship, & Fasting
January 1 - January 5, 2025

"But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me."
- Micah 7:7

What is Watch Week?

At Grace Monroe, we set aside the first few days of the year to reset our hearts and minds on Jesus through prayer, worship, and fasting together as a church family.  


Prayer

From Monday, January 1 through Sunday, January 5, the church auditorium will be turned into a 24/7 prayer room. We invite you to sign up for an hour (or more) prayer time slot using the link below. You will be provided with a prayer station guide to walk you through the experience. 

If you have never experienced a guided prayer time, or are wondering how in the world you are going to pray for a whole hour, you will be surprised at how fast the time goes, and how meaningful the experience can be.

You do not have to sign up to show up and pray. The prayer stations will be available to anyone day or night beginning at midnight New Year’s Eve. However, our goal is to have at least two people praying during every hour of the week, so we encourage you to sign up for at least one time slot.

Worship

Opening Worship Night - Wed. January 1, 6pm:

We will kick off Watch Week with our first Worship Night of 2025 on Wednesday, January 1st at 6pm. These are such powerful nights of worship and prayer.

Lauds and Vespers (Sunrise and Sunset Prayer), Thur-Sat. 7am and 6pm:

As a new component of Watch Week, we will gather corporately for a short time of guided prayer to start our day together and then a short time of prayer and worship to end our day together.

Closing Worship Night - Sun. January 5, 5pm:

Watch Week will close with our last worship night of the week on Sunday, January 5th, from 5:00pm to 6:00pm followed by a community meal as we break-fast together. See below for more info.

NOTE: We will have our normal Sunday worship gatherings at 9:00am and 10:45am on January 5th, along with our full GraceKidz and Grace Students offerings.

Fasting

So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”
- Mark 9:29, NKJV

Starting Monday, January 1 at 7:30am we invite you into a church-wide 5-day sunrise to sunset fast. Fasting from food from sunrise to sunset allows us to take intentional time during the day to deny our appetites and increase our hunger for God - focusing on Jesus instead of our stomachs and redirecting our resources from ourselves toward Kingdom purposes.

While we believe this is a powerful way to start the year, and prepare our church family for a new season of ministry in the Neighborhoods, Nations, and Next Generation, remember God is not as concerned with what is in your stomach as He is about what is in your heart! See fasting guide below for more.

To listen to Pastor Brian’s teaching on the spiritual discipline of fasting CLICK HERE.

We will break our fast together as a church family with Communion at sunset during Worship Night on Sunday, January 5, followed by a Mediterranean dinner to end our week with a time of celebration in the Bold Springs Coffee Shop.

Turning our hearts and appetites to Jesus.

Fasting Guide

Why Fast?

Fasting has been a central Christian spiritual discipline from the time the scriptures were written to today.  

Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness after his baptism and before beginning his ministry, “… and Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14). Jesus even taught, “When you fast…” in Matthew 6, assuming his followers would engage in this practice. Whatever the context or the time in history, fasting has proven to be a powerful way to seek God in a focused way for a set period of time. We don’t fast in order to earn God’s favor, or to punish ourselves for our sinfulness, or even to convince God to move in some way. We fast so that we may experience the fulfillment of Jesus’s words in Matthew 5:6 – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

Fasting allows us to focus our hunger on God for a set apart period of time, and the reward is not just more blessings or vision or even a renewed sense of mission, but God himself.

In Mark 2, when Jesus was asked why His disciples were not fasting, Jesus answers, "While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day." Until Jesus returns, it is appropriate for us to fast, inviting the Holy Spirit to focus our hearts on God and remove all distractions that draw us away from the knowledge of His Presence.


Consider these other reasons as well:

  • Fasting is the example set by Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11).

  • Fasting engages us in spiritual battle (Daniel 10).

  • Fasting gives us victory over the enemy (2 Chron. 20, Matthew 17:21).

  • Fasting empowers us for ministry (Acts 13:1-3).

  • Fasting acknowledges our total dependence on God (Ezra 8:21-23).

Other Ways to Fast: Some Helpful Alternatives

There are several types of fasting available to choose from. The one you choose is between you and God. He will honor your best sacrifice. Also, we recognize that it can be hard to journey through this fast when you have kids to consider, or other health concerns to worry about.

Please remember that every person is different and you should only choose what is a healthy and safe choice for you.

Here are some alternative fasting options to consider:

  • Media Fast - give up media such as social media, newsfeeds, tv/movies, etc. for a set period of time. This could be a great option to include even with the traditional sunrise to sunset fast!

  • Add a simple snack of nuts/fruit/raw vegetables during the day if you need for medical reasons.

  • Shift the time by an hour if you have young kids and need to adjust for family meals.

  • Create your own fast - give up any kind of food, beverage, media, or distraction for a set period of time.

  • If you need caffeine, try to limit yourself to one cup of black coffee each day.

A fast is the self-denial of normal necessities in order to intentionally attend to God in prayer. Fasting is not a magical way to manipulate God into doing our will; it's not a way to get God to be an accomplice to our plans. Neither is fasting a spiritual way to lose weight or control others. Fasting clears us out and opens us up to intentionally seeking God's will and grace in a way that goes beyond normal habits of prayer and worship.”
- Richard Foster

What To Do If You Break Your Fast

When we willfully or accidentally break our fast, it is common to feel like giving up early. But a fast is not a marathon by which we earn the presence of God upon its completion. Rather, it is a practice in which we intentionally make room to be attentive to the presence of God. So thank God for the food you’ve eaten, pray to re-center your will upon fasting food to feast upon God, and continue your fast to completion remembering that, “His mercies are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

We’re in This Together (for groups)

God calls us into community and we truly want to engage this journey together. We encourage Grace Groups to prayerfully consider entering into Watch Week together in prayer, fasting, and worship to act as accountability partners and encouragement throughout the week.

The church will be open for prayer in the auditorium 24/7 from Wednesday to Sunday so we encourage Grace Groups to find a time to come up together to pray.