Prayer and Fasting
Prayer and fasting are defined as voluntarily going without food in order to focus on prayer and fellowship with God. Prayer and fasting often go hand in hand but we can pray without fasting, and fast without praying. Combining the two and devoting them to God's glory is when they reach their full effectiveness. Having a dedicated time of prayer and fasting is not a way of manipulating God into doing what we desire but it is forcing us to focus and completely rely on God for the strength, provision, and the wisdom we need.
The more seriously we approach prayer and fasting, the more serious the results we will experience. Abstaining from food is often God's way of showing that His desire for us is that we re-claim complete control over all things associated with our flesh in order to calm our flesh and elevate our emphasis on spiritual matters. God's promise is to help us as we overcome the flesh and put all carnal temptations into subjection. God desires only good for His children. He tells us in His Word, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good" Romans 12:21. |
God calls us away from evil and toward good, He gives us a choice. So many of the problems we have in our world today are the result of men and women making the wrong choices. They have knowingly and unknowingly chosen what is evil. The end result is the same for us as it was for Adam and Eve: death and all forms of sin that lead to death. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” Romans 6:23.
Prayer and fasting should not be a burden or a duty, but a celebration of God's goodness and mercy to His children. Those who fast often experience greater discernment of good and evil. In fact, it seems to be a major by-product of fasting. God seems to give us an opportunity as we fast to take a look again at our lives and the world around us and to discern what is good and what is evil. Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Joel 2:12-13 (KJV) |