Daily Devotional

Personally, I don’t like skipping my daily meals. Not at all.

I’ll usually have water and/or coffee in the morning, a very light breakfast or no breakfast at all, a hearty lunch, another coffee in the afternoon (apparently this is a confession devotional), and then more often than I’d care to admit, I gorge myself for dinner and sprinkle it with sweet dessert. Preferably chocolate. By the evening, I’m ready to eat and eat and eat and then go to sleep!

So, like many of my fellow American Christians, when it comes to fasting, it seems like a foreign concept to me.

What, me? Skip a meal? Skip multiple meals? Skip meals while also praying? And, do it for an extended period of time?

Hmmm…

Do you ever struggle with fasting like I do?

Jesus said, “But you, when you fast…” In other words, it was an expectation. Jesus expected Charles to fast.

Jesus expects all of us to fast.

Jesus expects you to fast.

To withhold food or beverage for a meaningful period of time in order to beseech the Lord in prayer for a request that is near and dear to my heart. Yes, that is the goal.

Fasting isn’t a flippant thing Christians are to do, but it is something Christians are to do. Without question.

Therefore, as we begin and continue throughout the 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting, maybe you could begin with something like this (such as how I’m beginning):

1. Praying a prayer of confession to God that, as a Christian, I have not fasted as I ought.
2. Determine what I will be praying and fasting about, and bring it to the Lord, asking Him to give me strength and remembrance to fulfill my vow to accomplish it.
3. Determining to fast biblically for a specified period of time and soak it all in constant prayer.
4. Watch God do amazing things in both me and the other people I’m praying for.
5. Every time my stomach rumbles I will remember why I’m fasting, and will use that momentary remembrance to pray to God about it.
6. Keep my eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of my faith, who will strengthen me through the process.

May God richly bless you as you Pray and Fast, my friends!

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