12 Days of Prayer & Fasting

WHY FASTING?

As believers, our goal in life is to glorify the Lord and enjoy His presence. This simply does not happen without surrendering ourselves, silencing our flesh, and drawing near to Him in practical and challenging ways. Fasting is one of those tried-and-true practical steps. 

In fasting, we abstain in some significant way from food and possibly drink. This quickly brings to the surface all the ways we use food to satisfy our emotional needs. A lot of our daily sense of peace and well-being can come from the pleasures of eating. As a regular discipline, fasting is a great way to train ourselves to rely on God first.

When we fast, we experience bodily our utter dependence upon God by finding in Him our true source of sustenance. Fasting teaches both our minds and our bodies that God’s word to us is a life-sustaining reality, and that “man does not live on bread alone, but also the words that proceed from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4.)

Most of the time when we think about collective prayer and fasting, the question quickly arises, “What answers to prayer are we fasting for?” It’s true that in the Bible, most mentions of fasting are connected with seeking God for answers to specific prayers: (Ezra 8:21-23; Jonah 3:10; Acts 14:23).

Seeking specific answers to prayer should come with fasting. But, it is an oversimplification to say that fasting is simply a way to show God that we are serious. The Old Testament Jews and, In the time of Jesus, religious leaders and their disciples, as well as John the Baptist and his disciples, fasted, as a regular practice, regardless of their prayer objectives (Lev. 23:27,32; Is. 58; Mark 2:18-20; Luke 5:33).

When teaching His disciples about fasting, Jesus didn’t say “IF” you fast, He said “WHEN” you fast. Even though Jesus did not leave us a handy chart on how to fast, it is clear that Jesus assumes that his followers will fast at times (Matthew 6:16, Luke 5:35).

So, there will be 2 major results from our choosing to fast together the first 2 weeks of the year. Deeper dependance on God and empowered prayer in the church body.