Prayer and Fasting
- Jake
- Nov 21, 2024
- 2 min read
We hear the word “pray” or “prayer” all the time in the Church. There are books, sermons, and now even apps devoted to this word “prayer”. Pastors stand in front of their congregation every week praying over themselves and the people. We have small groups and Bible studies where they will open and close with prayer. Some churches even have prayer teams whose job it is to stay constantly in prayer during services. We seem to understand the importance of prayer, though I would argue that we miss the point (a discussion for another time), but what happened to fasting?
And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
Prayer and fasting, prayer and fasting, prayer and fasting. This is not just an Old Testament legalist idea. The only time I really hear anything about fasting in the Church is when it is linked to Lent or even the New Year. I’m not against giving things up for a time like these types of traditions call for, but this is not what fasting is in the Bible. Fasting is specifically not eating. Anything other than this is not fasting and then does not achieve the goal of fasting.
The goal is:
To serve (Luke 2:37)
To worship (Acts 13:2)
To humble (Psalm 35:13)
To repent (Joel 2:12-13)
The things listed above are enough to convince me that fasting plays an important role in a Christian’s life, but we have another important reason that Jesus teaches us as well. In Matthew 17:21 we see that there are types of devils that can only be cast out by prayer and fasting. There is an authority over devils that comes from the combination of the two. Why is this verse then removed from modern translations or, when this is quoted again in Mark 9:29, these translations remove fasting? Outside of the KJV, the other translations are protecting devils!
Lastly, I will just mention that it is disappointing that again, within the Church, we see a form of sacrifice for God being removed. Anytime that the Bible requires real sacrifice, real discomfort, our leaders choose to stay quiet. The Bible does require us to do certain things, meaning God requires it of us, this does not equate to legalism. We need to stop being quiet just because the demands of God may cause people discomfort. In this case, if you can’t handle giving up eating for a day either to; serve God, worship God, humble yourself before God, or repent to God, then how much do you truly love God?
And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
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