“I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks.” Dan10.3 ESV
I must confess that I have never been one to fast in order to help my prayers, at least not deliberately so. Every time I tried, I could think about was my empty growling stomach. There was this one time in my life where I experienced what I like to call a natural fast, I hardly ate, lost a great deal of weight and which reflected great emotional anguish before God. It wasn’t a planned fast; I simply lost my appetite because of the crisis I was facing. The crisis, as it often is for people being dealt with by the Holy Spirit, was over the guilt and weight of my sinful actions.
Jesus fasted; He also gave instructions to us about it, mainly about not doing it for show. I tend to think that a sincere fast may lie somewhere between a simple resolve for prayer and refraining from eating because the things you are praying about have so gripped your soul that you have lost your appetite. In this sense, fasting isn’t so much sacrificing food to get God’s attention or removing a distraction so you may pray, though this latter reason would be better than the former. I tend to think the best and truest fast is having one’s heart so moved by your concerns, and, you are so focused in your intercessions, that you simply forget to eat or else have no appetite for it. 11/17/2008 ts
Just me trying to be honest with God.
