Humble Yourself Before God

Whether you are on your first fasting journey or have been on a few already, you learn quickly that a call to fast is also the call to humble yourself before God. The word “humble” means to make yourself low before God and place yourself underneath him. When you respond to God’s call to fast, you are simultaneously taking the initiative to humble yourself before God.

I believe there is a link between walking humbly before God and praying with fasting. You are far more likely to walk before God humbly when practicing prayer and fasting. The story of Ezra leading the people to fast is a simple, specific, and clear illustration of the basics of fasting. Ezra proclaimed the fast so that everyone would humble themselves before God. Before God does great things through you, God wants to do great things in you.

When you humble yourself before God through prayer and fasting, he will do great things in you, resulting in him doing significant things through you. This is precisely what God did with Ezra and the people of God. As they submitted themselves before God, the Lord provided for them his protection on their journey to Jerusalem. Genuine fasting is never about us. Biblical fasting is about each of us humbling ourselves before God. Whether it was Moses, Isaiah, Ezra, David, Daniel, Jesus, or the early church, fasting always involved humbling oneself before God. We need God and his supernatural power.

Your body may feel weak when you fast, but this can remind you that God is in the process of humbling you. God is strong, and the weaker you become, the more you discover his strength and power. So even as you pray and humble yourself before God, consider kneeling before God at times, lying prostrate on the floor before God, or even sitting before the Lord in a chair just listening, meditating, and waiting before him. Each of these is a way to humble yourself before God.

Lord, I am taking the initiative to humble myself before you. I need your supernatural power in my life. Amen.