Join us for our GATHER: Worship & Prayer night on Tuesday 19 May from 7.45–9.40pm. This is where our whole church family will gather together in the Main Church to pray for our church and for God’s kingdom to come in our city.

We’re joining with churches across the city on Wednesday 20 May to celebrate what God’s doing in Cambridge, to hear encouraging stories, to raise our voices in worship, and to pray for God’s work. This event is at Christ Church Cambridge and is from 7.30–9.00pm.

Join us for a Worship Night on Saturday 16 May as we begin our week of prayer and the countdown to Pentecost. The evening will start at 7.30pm and is taking place in the Main Church.

Join us for a Whole-Church Picnic on 24 May, which is Pentecost Sunday. We’ll be meeting from 11.45am – look out for the big blue HT flags on Jesus Green, BYO food, and enjoy time getting to know other HT-ers!

Here are five reasons why we encourage fasting.

1. Fasting deepens our dependency on God – as we intentionally inhabit a place of need, rather than just providing bread for ourselves, fasting reminds us that ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’. (Matthew 4:4)

2. Fasting increases our urgency in prayer– fasting introduces a note of urgency into our prayer – it’s a way of telling God and telling ourselves that we’re serious about asking.

3. Fasting helps us inhabit the uncomfortable – fasting is a prophetic act of discontentment. It helps us take seriously the brokenness of our world and identify with the pain of others – even when we ourselves are currently comfortable.

4. Fasting increases our expectancy – it’s hard not to think of food and being filled when you’re hungry. Fasting physically reminds us of the spiritual hunger we want to have – that we are longing for more of God’s presence and ultimately for Jesus’s return.

5. Fasting builds spiritual muscle – fasting is saying ‘no’ to our body so that we can say ‘yes’ to God and to prayer. It builds our spiritual discipline and focuses us on heavenly rather than earthly things.

We’re inviting everyone in our church family to practise fasting during our week of prayer.

Here are a few practical tips on how you can integrate this practice into your week.

• Choose a meal to miss each day – breakfast, lunch, or supper.

• Use the time you would usually spend preparing your meal and eating it to pray and spend time with God.

• We’ll be sharing prayer resources each day on Instagram stories, email, and on our Prayer WhatsApp group. Make sure you follow us and/or are signed up for our emails and prayer broadcasts in advance.

• We also have resources on the Lord’s Prayer available here. This can be a helpful structure if you’ve not practised long periods of prayer and fasting before.

If you’re a seasoned faster, you might miss more meals or go for longer periods of time without food.

If you’re pregnant, breastfeeding, have a medical condition which makes fasting complex (e.g. diabetes), or struggle with disordered eating, you might do this slightly differently, too. Perhaps you could eat a small portion of simple, unseasoned rice and beans and give the rest of your mealtime to God.

If you’re looking to delve deeper into the practice of fasting, we highly recommend The Art of Fasting by Matthew Porter. We’ve got some copies on our book stall at the back of the Main Church, or you can order your copy online.

The Fasting Practice resources by John Mark Comer, which can be accessed online, are also really helpful for those starting out with fasting.