Challenges in Everyday Christian LivingExemplo

Fasting and Praying

It is easy to starve but a challenge to fast and pray. Attending a youth camp as a teenager was my first experience of fasting and prayer. We were skipping breakfast and lunch while being taught as a group to pray. The test was doing it on our own when we got back to our routine.

Some guidelines to guard your fasting and prayer times:

1. Spend more time praying and studying the word during your fast as compared to other days. Fasting without prayer is starving. 

2. Use the time to read books or watch videos that would build your Christian walk. 

3. Have the normal quantity of food after fasting and prayer. It is a common temptation to binge eat after fasting. Resist it.

Following Moses's and Jesus's 40 days fast without food and water, people go on one or more consecutive days missing all three meals. Some take only liquids during this time. Others follow Daniel and refrain from meat for a specific period. Fasting from social media or junk foods are some of the modern-day fasts. 

What matters most is that we are willing to give something close to our heart to show our love for God, not to get the favour of God. Personal experience is that fasting and praying puts us in the right perspective to enjoy God leading our lives amidst chaos and challenges. God's decision for our lives does not change because we fast, but we experience God's power in our lives when we fast and pray.

I had a history of fainting and blacking out due to my hereditary low blood pressure. Taking precautions like staying at home and refraining from doing strenuous work helped me during my fasts. Fasting took a backseat on resuming my career. God spoke from the verse, 'Man shall not live by bread alone'. This verse encouraged me to trust God as I continued my fasting and prayer. Today God enables me to do an extensive physical workout after my prayer time.  

Fasting and prayer are no longer a discipline God requires of us, but an act where we show our love to Christ. 

Prayer: Lord help me discipline my body, to come to You in fasting and prayer.