Monday, January 20, 2020

Have you considered fasting?

Are you concerned about this country?
Your family?
Your church?
The Church?
Do you need a spiritual breakthrough in your life?
Do what will work in response...
All issues have a spiritual root, so they need to be addressed in spiritual ways.
"Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes." (Daniel 9:3 ESV)
Talk to God.
Wait before Him in prayer.
Seek HIS presence.
And, fast.
Fasting breaks spiritual strongholds: "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?" (Isaiah 58:6 ESV)
Those seeking direction from God fast: "While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'" (Acts 13:2 ESV)
Fasting seeks God's face and is an appropriate expression of worship and repentance and also shapes one's prayer life: "'Yet even now,' declares the LORD, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.' Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster." (Joel 2:12-13 ESV)
Those asking for God's help fast: "So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty." (Ezra 8:23 ESV)
Those who are seeking affirmation about something they have heard from God fast: "Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off." (Acts 13:3 ESV)

Fasting is the appropriate response to believing God: "And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them." (Jonah 3:5 ESV) (NOTE: In this case, when Nineveh believed God, they repented and fasted in response to being humbled before God's righteous judgment. God, in turn, did not destroy them, but blessed them.)
(A) Fasting is a wise tool for spiritual people seeking God's favor in their dealings with secular people; (B) fasting prepares a saint to endure God's will: "Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish." (Esther 4:16 ESV)
The Bible says even more about fasting; much more. I believe, should we truly desire spiritual solutions to life's issues, that complaining to people will not do nearly the good that seeking the Lord will do.

No comments: