Fasting with Purpose

 

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

 

A friend invited me to pray about a situation in her life. She felt the issue was big enough that she was going too fast. She had recently read the Book of Daniel and was following his example.

In Daniel 9:2 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.”

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.”

We are a people who hate to think about our own sin, no less fasting over it. We cheer for the efforts of our children and pat adults on the back for theirs. We want to think of ourselves as good people. Often, that gets affirmed for us.

On the outside, many of us appear good and deserving of those cheers. That may cause us to believe it’s true.

Fasting is a sacrifice. We sacrifice food so that our spiritual attention is keener.  When we deprive ourselves of food, we can begin to focus on the harder things to think about. When we fast for a purpose and we get hungry, we are being reminded to remember the issues at hand. A fast without a specific purpose seems spiritually useless.

Confession of sin is also a sacrifice. Spiritually, we are sacrificing that deceived image of ourselves as “good” for the truth 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.

Daniel’s confession of his sin, and the sins of the nation, was an act of humility. It would have been easier to see the sin of others. In a war, Israel had been taken from their land and exiled.

Daniel had it better than some. He was in the palace serving the king. 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.

Daniel said his prayers were for “Your own sake, O Lord”? Perhaps some of the reason that Daniel received 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 fasting and  the confession of sin through Daniel, then my prayer friend is on to something in following his example. Her request to pray 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