Prayer Guide

Prayer Guide for December 2025

“We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth Century does not reckon with. But we are ‘harmless,’ and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the-death with principalities and powers in high places. Meekness must be had for contact with men, but brass, outspoken boldness is required to take part in the comradeship of the Cross. We are ‘sideliners’—coaching and criticizing the real wrestlers while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh, that God would make us dangerous!” —Jim Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty

Those words from the martyred missionary Jim Elliot still land with force. They aren’t meant to shame us; they are meant to awaken us. I feel their sting as much as anyone. But they also stir something deeper—a longing to be the kind of believer who actually matters in the spiritual battle raging around us.

So what can we do? How do ordinary Christians become spiritually dangerous in the best possible way?

I don’t have all the answers, but Scripture gives us one clear, simple, powerful step: fasting.

This is not a new idea. God’s people have always turned to fasting when they recognized the stakes were high and their need for Him was great. More than 2,400 years ago, Ezra described exactly this kind of moment:

“I proclaimed a fast by the Ahava River, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us, our dependents, and all our possessions. I did this because I was ashamed to ask the king for infantry and cavalry to protect us from enemies during the journey, since we had told him, ‘The hand of our God is gracious to all who seek him, but his fierce anger is against all who abandon him.’” Ezra 8:21–22

Ezra knew what we often forget: Fasting is how God’s people humble themselves, acknowledge the battle, and align their hearts with His strength. Fasting doesn’t earn God’s favor—it positions us to receive what He already desires to give.

And that is my prayer for our church.

This month, here is the ONE THING I am asking you to pray: that God’s people become sensitive and willing to regularly—as the Spirit leads—enter into times of prayer and fasting.

Imagine what God might do if hundreds of us humbled ourselves like Ezra did—seeking Him for our families, our church, our city, and the mission He’s given us.

A small change going forward:

You do not need to fast on the third of each month. Instead, fast whenever the Spirit of God prompts you. One day. A meal. What matters is not the calendar but the obedience.

Finally, if this message stirs you, would you share it with someone else in our church family? Many believers simply have never been invited into fasting. Your encouragement might open a door for someone to take their first step.

May God make us humble, bold, prayerful—and, yes, even dangerous for His glory.

Expecting Great and Mighty Things,
Bill Street