Fasting Part 11

Well, you did it! You fasted for three days, by giving up three meals. I hope it was a blessing for you as any and all reminders of food reminded you of your need for the Bread of Life!  Now that you know you can do it; I hope you will continue to set aside a regular time of fasting and prayer as part of your spiritual discipline. To further help you in that regard, I want to post a few more blogs concerning fasting as a way to encourage you.

Fasting is a way to pray with your body asking God for direction and meeting specific needs. Need some of that right now in your life? Let’s look at the biblical account of Elijah being taken in and fed by the widow at Zarephath. You can read about it in 1Ki 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word."

 2 Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying,

 3 "Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan.

 4 "And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there."

 5 So he went and did according to the word of the LORD, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan.

 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.

 7 And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

 8 Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying,

 9 "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you."

 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, "Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink."

 11 And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, "Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand."

 12 So she said, "As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die."

 13 And Elijah said to her, "Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son.

 14 "For thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.'"

 15 So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days.

 16 The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah.

At first glance, we can look at this account of the widow and Elijah and ask, “what has this got to do with fasting? The word “fast” is nowhere to be found in the story.  This is true, but the concept of fasting is cleverly hidden in the fact that the widow was willing to give up her last meal and trust God to come through and provide for her.

This is the essence of fasting! In fasting we are telling God, “I am giving up on my own resources to meet my needs and looking to Your resources to meet them!

In this account, Elijah had just told the wicked King Ahab, that God was going to judge him through drought. Drought means no rain, no rain means no crops, no crops means famine, famine means no food. Famines are mandatory fasts imposed by God. The God who has the first and last say in nature uses them to get our attention, just as He encourages us to fast to get His attention.

Remember Mt 6:18? “That your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (You fast for God’s attention, not man’s)

Now, Ahab wasn’t happy with Elijah. He didn’t want to hear the preacher telling him to change his ways, and the best way to silence somebody is do em’ in. So Elijah’s life was in danger, but God was way ahead of Ahab. He already had a place of safety set aside for  him.

So he tells Elijah to beat feet to the brook Cherith where he can hide out and he would  have water to drink and food catered in daily by the Crow Catering Service.

Do we have a great God or what? I mean have you ever tried to command a crow? Did you ever try to tell a crow what to do. But God COMMANDED the crows to feed Elijah. Now, He could’ve commanded the chickadees to feed Elijah, but that would’ve meant birdseed, instead Elijah gets the steak and bread diet of the crow!

But lo and behold, eventually the brook dries up. Now what God? Well sometimes, God has to dry things up in our lives in order to get us to move on.

Maybe things are drying up in your life even as I speak. Well, don’t panic, wait to hear from the Lord. Keep looking to Him and His Word. Pull still another fasting card if you have to, it was what Ezra did when he was wondering what to do. He said in Ezra 8:21,  “Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.

You see, fasting can also be used to ask God for direction in your life.

Fasting for needs or fasting for direction. Whatever the case may be, we are admitting that our resources are used up and we need to rely on His! 

Father, thank You for the spiritual tool of fasting.