Page 5 - Fasting Poems

Introduction
Oakham Baptist Church had a week of prayer and fasting in the first week of February 2021.
Unfortunately, for health reasons, I’m not really able to fast. I could have given up some of my vices (chocolate, biscuits, cake), but with Lent just around the corner, I cast my mind around for something different I could commit to during this week.
And that was when I had the idea that I would do something! Instead of fasting by giving something up, I would fast by dedicating time to doing something that was to God’s glory. I would set some time aside each day that week to try to use my creativity to produce something that might help to focus others on the wonderful story of the gospel and the characters who were so prominent in it through the books of the Bible.
So - as a long time dabbler in poetry, I decided to write a poem for each day of the week. I started with the Sunday before - when the sermon was about Peace, and would finish the following Sunday - on Patience.
But for the weekdays, I would follow the prayer themes for each day, and see how they inspired me:
On Monday we prayed for family and friends.
On Tuesday we prayed for Oakham - the town where we live.
On Wednesday we prayed for Rutland, the county that our church serves. On Thursday we prayed for our nation.
On Friday we prayed for the world.
And on Saturday, we finished with prayers for our own church family.
This little anthology therefore needed to be published - because I needed to prove to the others in the church who had been so diligently fasting that I had kept my side of the bargain.
I did write the poems. Here they are...