Fasting

Fasting

MY QUESTION for GOD

Why should I fast?

A MOMENT with GOD

Jehoshaphat was terrified by this news and begged the Lord for guidance. He also ordered everyone in Judah to begin fasting.

2 Chronicles 20:3

When this vision came to me, I, Daniel, had been in mourning for three whole weeks. All that time I had eaten no rich food. No meat or wine crossed my lips, and I used no fragrant lotions.

Daniel 10:2-3

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry. . . . Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power.

Luke 4:1-2, 14

Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church. With prayer and fasting, they turned the elders over to the care of the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.

Acts 14:23

Sometimes we talk with our hands to better express what we are trying to communicate. Our gestures add a more tangible passion, emphasis, or elaboration to our words. Fasting is similar—it’s a more tangible way of communicating with God. Some have said that fasting is praying with the body. It is one thing to talk to God, to tell him you love him, to ask him to talk to you. But sometimes it helps to do something as you communicate with God; it can add more focus, commitment, and passion to your conversation with him. Most of us think of fasting as not doing something, such as not eating. But fasting really is doing something. It involves taking specific steps to temporarily alter a daily habit. The act of stopping something you normally do often takes more effort than just continuing to do it. When you fast, you are stopping one thing in order to more fully focus on something else, namely, communicating with God. Fasting is making the extra effort to tell God you are serious about what he has to say. It sharpens your mind and allows you to be more receptive to what God has to say. Perhaps most important, fasting is one way emphasize to God just how much you value your communication with him.

DIVINE PROMISE

WHEN YOU FAST, DON’T MAKE IT OBVIOUS. . . . THEN NO ONE WILL NOTICE THAT YOU ARE FASTING, EXCEPT YOUR FATHER, WHO KNOWS WHAT YOU DO IN PRIVATE. AND YOUR FATHER, WHO SEES EVERYTHING, WILL REWARD YOU.

Matthew 6:16-18