Fasting For Understanding

# 271 Today’s Living Word comes from Mark 2:18 “The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting.” Mark 2:18

Fasting is a beneficial spiritual tool that God has given to His people. It can be used as an inaudible expression of sorrow before the throne of God. Rather than the sobbing and moaning associated with grieving, it is the growl of the stomach, and the unmet yearnings of the flesh that only God can hear.

We read of such a fast in Daniel 10. In verses 2 and 3 we read, “In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.”

Something was grieving Daniel. We get a clue in Dan 10:12, 'Then he said to me, “fear not Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard.”

Daniel found himself in a situation where he just didn't understand. “Why God? Why must we be in captivity? Why is this happening to Your people? But instead of moping around the king's court in Babylon, he decided to bring his grief and his questions to God in the form of a fast.

A notable feature of his fast was giving up those things he found pleasurable. He ate food, but abstained from that which gave him pleasure. It's sort of like giving up a favorite food for Lent. He even denied himself the pleasure of pampering himself with body oils!

Have you ever considered giving up some things you enjoy for a season just so you might express your sorrows to the Lord over the “why God” questions in your life?

I don't know how the Lord will react to such a fast for you or I, but His response to Daniel's fast is mind-blowing!

God sent a special angel to Daniel and he was given one great and final vision that revealed not only the near future for Israel, but the distant future of all of God’s children all the way up to great day of God’s final judgment! (Dan 11,12) And Daniel's “why God” questions melted away before this great plan of God!

When all was said and done Daniel was left with strength, (“And as he spoke to me I was strengthened,” (Dan 10:19) and personal assurance. (“And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.” (Dan 12:12)

Strength and assurance. Sounds like something you and I could use when the “why God's?” of our lives bring sorrow to our hearts.

I’m Duane Matz and that’s today’s Living Word.