A Great Example of Proper Fasting

# 296 – We are continuing a series on fasting. As we have seen, this spiritual discipline is not just for Old Testament believers, yet we can learn much about fasting from their example. We've been looking at Nehemiah's prayer and fast as found in Neh 1,2. The reward that Nehemiah sought from God through fasting, was the restoration of the church (the rebuilding of the walls and gates) and that he would find favor with the king (Government) He specifically asked God, “give success to Your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. (King Artaxerxes) (Neh 1:11) Nehemiah knew some things about God. He knew, “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes. (Prov 21:1) and so he turned to the only One who was capable of manipulating the government. I'm amazed at how slow we are in the church to realize this. Oh, the time, energy, and money we waste trying to turn the heart of the king (government) on our own. Nehemiah had no PAC money. He didn't run a multi million dollar ad campaign. He didn't hire lobbyists. He humbled himself, fasted and prayed to the One who had the real power to do something about it. We complain about capitol hill, we gripe about the white house when official policies and laws are passed that fly in the face of biblical morality. We resort to unkind words and rants, but how come we never seem interested in following Nehemiah's example of dealing with the government? How come we never quietly fast and pray for the favor we desire from the king? Now let's pick it up in Nehemiah 2:1 “And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. Key points here regarding fasting. We know that Nehemiah started his fast in the month of Chislev, now it is the month Nisan. For those of you who don't have a Jewish calendar handy...that's 4 months. Fasting brings results, but the timing of those results is in the hands of God. Therefore, it is often necessary to persevere in your fasting and prayer! It wasn't that he went without food for four months, he was the cup bearer! Part of his job was tasting food so the king wouldn't be poisoned! Rather he likely engaged in some sort of periodic targeted fasting involving some sort of a denial of his flesh. Remember our definition of fasting: “a denial of the flesh in order to gain a response from the Spirit.” Furthermore, Nehemiah had never been sad “in the presence of the king,” until this instance. He had never scrunched up his face and made a big deal about his fast: He was fasting in accordance with Jesus' instructions given in His Sermon on the Mount, “Do not be like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others, but when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in the secret place and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Stay tuned because Nehemiah, was about to be rewarded for his proper fasting. Father, help us to persevere in our fasting and prayer, trusting you for the results.