The importance of fasting

Good morning! I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend.

Today, I would like to talk about fasting. About a year ago, I felt God placing fasting heavily on my heart. I would fast occasionally, but I was never consistent.

Throughout this year, however, I continued hearing messages about fasting. Eventually, I began to feel that God was trying to get my attention once again. So, this summer, I made the decision to take fasting more seriously.

My first fast took place while I was dealing with an uncomfortable situation at work. Although God did not immediately remove me from the situation, fasting helped me endure it with greater peace and strength until it was finally resolved.

After that, I began fasting about other concerns. However, I made the mistake of focusing on abstaining from food without praying as fervently as I should have. As a result, I did not feel as close to God during those fasts as I had hoped. I began to understand that fasting is not simply about what we give up; it is also about intentionally drawing closer to God through prayer.

I started fasting again this week, but this time I committed myself to praying more fervently. Yesterday was the first day of my fast. During my prayer time, I prayed about a particular situation concerning a friend of mine.

This morning, she called and told me that the situation had been resolved.

Isn’t God good?

Her call encouraged me because I had been praying about the situation for several days, yet nothing appeared to be changing. However, after fasting and praying yesterday, it seemed as though the prayer finally broke through. God is truly good!

This experience led me to another question: Why do some prayers appear not to be answered through prayer alone? Why does fasting sometimes seem to add greater power, urgency, or spiritual focus to our prayers and help bring about a breakthrough?