Please Do Not Eat on Inauguration Day

I have done New Age type fasting cuz some New Age type gooroo said to. It was interesting.

I have done trendy health regime intermittent fasting cuz some trendy health regime type gooroo said to. It was useful.

So it is not like I am a stranger to fasting.

But then one day, I tried to fast AND pray because the Bible says to, or at least seems to say to.

Boy oh boy.

Did that blow all the rest out of the water.

And in time I came to incorporate periods of fasting and prayer as a part of my life.

I don’t know how it works, but it works. My understanding of God grew deeper. My faith grew deeper. My desire for the things of God grew deeper. My relationship with food has been reset repeatedly. And it became a lifestyle change for me — fasting and prayer became a part of how I lived, so much so that I would long for it and the clarity it brought when I was not doing it.

This is one of many things in my life that changed with the lockdowns, the lockdowns for me that ordered every church in the state of California closed down.

I’m sure you too have a long list of things that changed. Some of them might even have been changes for the better.

So, fast forward about four years and here I am writing about fasting and prayer. I have dug into what the Bible has to say about it. I have dug into what prominent theologians have said about it. I have dug into what US Presidents of the past have said about it. Did you know that at least four US Presidents have asked for Americans to have a national day of fasting and prayer for the purpose of humbling themselves and our nation before the Lord?

Well, before I knew it, I was writing a book on the topic. The book just came out of me. I started with those presidential proclamations on why America needs to fast and pray. Reading those is pretty neat. In some desperate moments, some prominent leaders very publicly turned to God, and asked their fellow Americans to do the same. Then I moved onto biblical proclamations of the same. There are a bunch of examples of that.

Until the new president is inaugurated, this book will be available free to all who want it. Tap here to get it.

And yes, once you have had a look at it, if you think it is a fit for others, I invite you to share this book freely. Share the link, share the actual file, share whatever you want. Thanks to thinkers like Lew Rockwell and Gary North and others hosted at the Mises Institute, I gave up my appreciation for the term “intellectual property” a long time ago. I am a bestselling writer who thinks copyright is not a legitimate right at all. So, yes, “steal” my work. “Steal” it freely. “Steal” it with a good conscience.

But let me give you some highlights.

In the Bible, 2 Chronicles 7:14 describes the usefulness of fasting and prayer when a people have gone astray. King Solomon in a dream is told this in a dream, at the height of Israel’s relationship with God. The temple has just been built, everyone is on their best behavior. Things are warm and snugly between them and God. At that moment God, sort of like a wet blanket, harshes the vibe a little and says it won’t always be this way Solomon. Let me tell you how to fix things when a nation goes astray: call out to me, humble yourselves, and turn from your wicked ways.

My experience to date has been that there is no better way to humble oneself than to fast and pray.

Another important detail is this. Trump should call for a National Day of Fasting and Prayer. It should not be done as a presidential proclamation though. It should be done from one of his social media accounts. The reason for this is several — my lack of appreciation for the state as an institution being one of them, but also bigger things. Central to that is the distinction between the concept of “nation” and the concept of “country.”

This is a concept that has been blurred and ultimately forgotten over the years in the United States, since we tend to regard the leader of our nation and the leader of our country as the same. Nation is a group of people. Country is a place with political boundaries. The two words mean vastly different things. While Americans may not intuitively know the distinction, the Lemkos of Eastern Europe and the Kurds of Western Asia understand the distinction well. They are two (out of many) nations of people who do not neatly fall within the political boundaries of a country the way Americans have been taught to neatly understand the concept.

As such, both groups tend to be filled with individuals who can think outside the box of nation = state = country = government = flag = I am an obedient serf who does whatever he is told. Unfortunately, many people are stuck in that box.

Sometime in the autumn of 2024, Donald Trump became the leader of the nation. It was hard to dispute. Something had changed. Even Joe Biden was making these slips that pointed to him seeing Trump as the legitimate authority in the nation. This was done despite the fact that Biden was sitting in the seat of power over the country. One was leader of the nation, the other was leader of the country. That’s dangerous territory for America to be in because it leads to too much out of the box thinking.

With multi trillions of dollars of resources at his disposal to handle a hurricane, Biden was outflanked by the comparatively impoverished Trump and a handful of business owners. All media was forced to cover it. It was a testament to the value of government letting the people handle problems. It was an example of how little we actually need the state as we know it in every part of our lives. It was a moment in American history in which the widely regarded leader of the American nation, was not the leader of the country, was not the head of the government.

Whatever you think of Trump, that moment took place. And it further delegitimized both the concept of government and the role of Joe Biden.

America needs to fast and pray. America doesn’t need a public proclamation of that. America would be well served however if the present-day leader of the nation would just tweet that out, and if he himself would do the same — to forego MacDonald’s for a day and to spend a good part of that day on his knees crying out to God.

And there is no day for that like Inauguration Day, the day of partying in DC, the day that many deals for the next four years are made, as another party comes along and squanders the birthright of this generation and the next generation. How good of a day that would be for a National Day of Fasting and Prayer — that Inauguration Day not be a partisan victory party, but a recognition that our nation is bigger than parties, a recognition that it is bigger even than governments. Inauguration Day can be a solemn day of respect for that reality, a real call to unity that does not involve the partisan victory party.

But it can be more. It can be a day to honor the Almighty. It can be a day to ask for a healing of the land. It can be a day to humble ourselves. Does that involve every American? It can.

Inauguration Day, the way it is usually done, certainly does not involve all Americans. It is just a partisan party. And in our current era — with its immense federal budgets and divisive politics — that is likely to be even more the case.

At the same time, with an exciting bi-partisan team, and an electoral mandate, Donald Trump has the potential to have the most impactful next four years that America has ever seen. Will he squander it? Will he squander it by perhaps losing much of his gains to the deep state and their wiles as he did in the first term? Time will tell.

I know this, though. If he dedicates it to the Lord at the beginning. If he humbles himself before the Lord, if he turns from his wicked ways (whatever those may be), the Lord will heal this land.

I believe there is no more impactful way to start those next four years than by our national leader fasting and praying and by calling us to spend a day doing the same.

If Trump wants to do everything to make these four years a success, he will ask Americans individually in their lives and in their homes and in their communities to fast and pray and humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways.

I am not the leader of the nation. I do not have the pull the leader of a nation does. But I ask you on Inauguration Day 2025, Monday, January 20, 2025, that you abstain from food, that you get on your knees, and that you spend some time with God telling Him where you know you’ve gone wrong, asking Him to turn your heart even more obediently toward  Him, and asking Him to heal this land.

And if you know anyone else who might be willing to do that, please share this piece that you are reading. If you want more from me on the topic, tap here. That’s the book, free to you until noon on Inauguration Day, or at least until a new President is put in office.

But, most of all, I ask you to fast and pray alongside me on Inauguration Day.