“‘Even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’ … Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.”

Joel 2:12-13
In 1981, ten Irish nationalists died in a Belfast prison after their hunger strike. From 1913 to 1947 Mahatma Gandhi fasted many times for various causes. These acts of fasting were a form of social or political demonstration. But the Bible always links fasting with prayer, not with protests or political campaigns.

You can read in Ezra 8:23, Nehemiah 1:4, and Luke 2:37 of prayer coming alongside of fasting. The early church fasted and prayed (Acts 13:2-3). But then in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned against pride in both fasting and praying (Matthew 6:5-18).

How do we move from pride-induced praying and fasting to humbly submitting to God? How do we find our contentment in Christ more than anything else? When we pray and fast, “we make war on the deceitfulness of our desires and declare the preciousness of prayer and the all-surpassing worth of God” (John Piper, 1997). Our sincere prayers and our fasting from whatever it is we have leaned hard on bring us to a place of deepest satisfaction in our loving God.



Scripture Focus

Matthew 6:1-18

Insight

Lord, help our praying and fasting to be done in humble dependence upon You and in a way that declares Your all-surpassing worth. Amen

Bible In A Year

  • Deuteronomy 7-8
  • Psalm 83
  • Acts 5-6

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