iHunger: A Closer Walk with God预览

...and fasting

God has given us many powerful tools to be successful in our Christian walk. One tool that we access the most as Christians is the power of prayer. One of the least used, most underestimated weapon is fasting.

Have you ever met two powerful people who become a couple and become even more powerful? That is the perfect example of how prayer and fasting go together. In fact, I would even venture to say that prayer must be coupled with fasting in order to be effective. You may be wondering what the fasting thing is all about. Let's explore fasting.

Fasting is more than the act of abstaining from food and/or drink. Fasting is a spiritual discipline, along with prayer, reading the Word of God, service and worship, just to name a few. While there is no scripture that says explicitly that the believer must fast in order to see God, fasting is essential for the believer seeking more of God. There is no doubt that you can grow in God without fasting, but Mark 9:29 reminds us that there are some things that we can access only if we have given ourselves to prayer and fasting.

Fasting is both arduous and advantageous to the believer. I like to parallel Christ's suffering to fasting. Though the cross was hard to endure Jesus endured the cross because it would benefit us, His children. Like Jesus, though fasting requires pain and discipline we must endure it because of the benefits to us. One benefit of fasting with sincerity is that it will bring us closer to God. Fasting causes us to deny ourselves and put down our own will in exchange for the will of the Father. We see one of the greatest examples of self-denial in Jesus' prayer at the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22). He prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Wouldn't you like to be so close to God that you can feel what He feels and see what He sees? Another benefit of fasting is that we begin to rid ourselves of our willful and sinful nature. It is after we strip ourselves of our nature that God begins to purify us so that our spiritual senses are heightened, causing us to become more sensitive to His spirit.

Today's Challenge

Food. Social Media. Unnecessary conversations. Secular Music

Fast from something that really mean a lot to you. Start with something you feel like you can not live without. God will show you that you can. Here's a tip: when fasting gets hard, don't think of how much it hurts. Think of how much its going to help!