Fasting and Praying

Three times in two days God has brought up the subject of fasting and praying. When something comes up more than once I figure maybe I had better think about it. So, I was thinking about it yesterday because I had taught about praying and one of the ladies in the class asked me about fasting. I hadn’t even mentioned it. That got me thinking about how I had failed to connect the two.

Later yesterday I was in another conversation and we talked about it for just a minute. Mostly, we talked about how it isn’t something we hear much about in our churches and Bible studies.

Then, this morning I was invited to pray about a situation. The one doing the inviting was going to also fast but was excusing me from that part of the request. The issue was big enough in her life that she wants to fast. She had recently read the Book of Daniel and was taking her instruction from the example set by Daniel himself.

In Daniel 9:2 he says, ” in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.” He understands from the Word of God that the exile is about to be over. That realization drives him to prayer and fasting. Daniel 9:3, “Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.”

Interestingly, most of Daniel’s prayer seems to be confessing the sins of the nation including his own.. Daniel 9:15 sums it up this way, “And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.”

I remember just a couple of years ago seeing Isaiah 59:1-2 for the first time. It wasn’t that I hadn’t read it before that but I hadn’t fully understood the ramifications of it. It says, “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” (Isaiah 59:1-2) Our sin separates us from God and can cause Him not to hear our prayers. That is pretty serious stuff to God. He commands us to pray and expects us to pray confidently. Sometimes it feels like He hasn’t heard or maybe He’s saying no to something that we believe is in His will. Why? Is it our own sin?

We are a people who hate to think about our own sin. We are the ones who have been cheered for every effort we make (and we do that with our children). We want to think of ourselves as good people and pretty much that gets affirmed for us at every turn. Perhaps on the outside that’s what we look like to others and so that’s what we believe about ourselves.

Fasting is a sacrifice. We sacrifice food so that our spiritual attention will be a little keener. For some reason when we deprive ourselves of food for a time we can begin to focus on the harder things to think about. When we fast for a purpose – for the purpose of seeing and removing the sin that might be separating us from God and causing Him to be deaf to our prayers- when we feel hungry we are being reminded of the reason for the fast. A fast without a specific purpose is spiritually useless.

Confession of sin is also a sacrifice – a spiritual sacrifice. We are sacrificing that deceived image of ourselves as “good” for the truth in our hearts that we are sinners before a Holy God. Daniel took this seriously for the whole nation of Israel who was living in exile in Babylon.

This is the finale of his prayer and God’s response: Daniel 9:17, “Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate.” Then, Daniel 9:20-23, “While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the LORD my God for the holy hill of my God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, ‘O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.’”

As I was putting myself in Daniel’s shoes and thinking about fasting and praying I realized that for Daniel to confess his sin and the sin of the nation was a very humble act. In his situation it would have been much easier to see the sin of others. They had been taken from their land and exiled. Daniel had it pretty good in the palace serving the king but that wasn’t true for all. But he didn’t point God to the sin of Babylon. He prayed with fasting for his own sin and the sin of his people.

I don’t know about you but I am quick to see the sins of others and slow to see my own. I am wondering if the emphasis on fasting and prayer this week is so God can clear my mind and get me to concentrate on my own need for confession rather than resentment and bitterness over someone else’s sin.

When Daniel fasted and prayed he received “insight and understanding” from a messenger of God. But did you notice that his prayers were for “Your own sake, O Lord”? Perhaps some of the reason that Daniel was given this insight and understanding was because his eyes were on the glory of God and not just relief from his own situation.

What I’ve learned over the years is that all things that are for God’s glory are also for our good. If God was glorified in the confession of sin through Daniel then my prayer friend is on to something in following his example. Her call this morning was what I needed to get me thinking about God and His purposes in fasting and praying. I pray it’s also food for thought for you.