Fasting and Prayer

These past few weeks have been physically rough for our church body, with so many people getting sick or with declining health, or having procedures done it’s been overwhelming. The prayer list for healing grows almost on a daily basis.

For this reason I have been looking for more effective ways to pray and ways of petitioning the Lord, and one thing has come forward time and again, fasting.

Trying to compact what the Bible has to say about fasting into a short and useful lesson is not easy, and I hope to break it down specifically for the purpose of healing up our Congregation. I believe the Lord hears our prayers, and further I believe that by fasting our prayers will become that much more intense, focused, urgent, respectful, humble and yes effective.

 It has intrigued me that depriving oneself of food would cause our Lord and Savior to sit up and take notice, as if He would say “well they must be serious now, they passed up lunch and dinner. I guess I should get on that.” However I find it to be less and less like that as I search into fasting. One thing I have found is that if you fast it will cause you to concentrate on the reason for the fast and in fact the reason for the prayer. You will remember with every hunger pang, or every time you miss the “thing” from which you are fasting why it is you are fasting.  (If for medical reasons you should not fast from food, give up something else that you enjoy, like watching your favorite show or something similar)

So what is fasting? Fasting is first and foremost to be a private matter as we see in Isaiah 58:4 ^4” Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.” And again in Matthew 6:16 “And ^twhen you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. ^uTruly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ¹⁷ But when you fast, ^vanoint your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. ^wAnd your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Next we see fasting as an act of humbling oneself before the Lord, especially in times of mourning. Daniel 9:3 ^“Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.” However in Acts 13:2-3 we see it as part of worship, ^2” While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ^r“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” ³ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” Also in times of danger such as in 2 Chronicles 20:3-4 “Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. ⁴ And Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.”

As a side note I can’t help but wonder that when you have a family member who is suddenly taken ill or in the hospital, typically the last thing one thinks about is food. I can’t help but think that is the Holy Spirit sustaining us and guiding us to prayer and worship. So I humbly ask that you consider, if you do not already, pick a day to fast and pray for your brothers and sisters who need physical healing. I ask that you do it wisely, and pray about it.  Now as we all know; it is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. ”