Fast Friends: The Amazing Power of Friendship, Fasting, and Prayer Published by Broadstreet Publishing on October 1st, 2015
Genres: Biblical Studies, Christian Life, Religion, Spiritual Growth, Women
Pages: 192
Goodreads
Face it ladies, we need each other. We all desire relationships that are intimate. A friend we can trust and confide in. Someone who will hold the concerns of our heart with a tender commitment to support and see us find the answers to those concerns. Women have a unique, God-given capacity to connect and to love. But are we exercising that gift? As Christ followers, are we growing?Are we seeing answers to our prayers? Do we approach the throne of God alone with the requests that turn our lives inside out? Or are we being the body of Christ, sacrificing for and supporting each other? If you cannot say yes to these questions, a “Fast Friend” could be the answer.
When I first saw this book, Fast Friends: The Amazing Power of Friendship, Fasting and Prayer, by Suzanne Niles and Wendy Simpson Little, it’s funny how I completely missed the word “fasting” in the title. What I saw was “fast friends” and “friendship” and “prayer” and that was enough for me to be interested in reading a copy of this book.
Fast Friends was released on October 1, 2015, and these two women, Suzanne Niles and Wendy Simpson Little, are some powerful prayer warriors that we can all take lessons from! As I read this book, I learned a little about the lives and experience of these two women God brought together to walk through life as friends and prayer partners. Fast Friends is a chronicle of Suzanne and Wendy’s failures and successes, along with their shared and personal experiences. They teach us how God’s faithfulness as they chose to move closer towards Him.
It chronicles Wendy and Suzanne’s failures and successes, their shared and varied experiences, and the faithfulness of God when they chose to move towards Him. They teach us how we can partner in prayer and fasting to experience life-changing spiritual growth, amazing answers to prayer, and intimacy with one another that bears eternal fruit.
As they relate their story, about 12 years ago Suzanne and Wendy both felt prompted to journey into fasting and prayer together. They felt that God whispered to them drawing them closer to Him in a new way. While they were already believers and did study God, they just felt there was “more”. They wanted to engage in a deeper level of spirituality that they had not yet experienced.
They decided that one day a week, from Monday night after family dinner, to Tuesday night before family dinner they would fast and pray. They found their senses heightened and focused on finding that designated location so that they could get quiet, and to listen and speak once spoken to. On the occasion that they would speak first, it was to worship and confess anything that had been revealed by God. They found that this spiritual discipline turned their ears to hear the voice of God to help them by taking away the sin, baggage, past hurts and fear of the future, and replace those with peace in knowing He was there.They gave God the control as they relinquished their lives to Him.
At the beginning, they confess that they would sometimes dread the hours they couldn’t eat, or they would find themselves binge eating the night before to be sure they could live off their “reserves”. But then they grew spiritually and instead of hungering for food, they began to hunger for their time alone with God. They were energized and became eager to know more about Him and more about themselves so that they could use what they were learning to help encourage others to do the same.
They share that God “fine-tuned” areas in their lives dealing with strengthening their faith for the tough times such as job loss, illness issues with their children and relationship issues. Their friendship grew stronger as they prayed and they fasted and they learned. By reading this book, we too can learn how these two amazing women found the strength to grow in their journey with God and learn how to do the same in our own lives!
I was provided with a complimentary digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review and unbiased opinion.
It would be great if you would stay connected with me!! You can follow me on Twitter @DebiL1611, like me on Facebook at 2014 and Beyond, circle me on Google+, follow me on Tumblr, Instagram and Bloglovin’, subscribe on YouTube, or connect with me on LinkedIn and Pinterest.
Please make sure to visit my homepage and subscribe to my blog for more great posts on running, fitness and lifestyle topics as well as food, product, music and book reviews, and more!
