Topic: “PRAYING AND FASTING” – Daily Devotional By Dag Heward-Mills Ministry 26 January 2020
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READ: Acts 14:21-28
“In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread…“ – Daniel 10:2-3
Develop the art of waiting on God by praying and fasting with “no pleasant bread” (instead of not praying and not eating at all).
Daniel fasted for twenty-one days. Daniel’s fast involved eating, but eating what he described as “no pleasant bread”. In other words, he stayed away from what he would really have loved to eat.
Staying away from your usual meals and your usual delights is a form of fasting. It is called “no pleasant bread” fasting. It is better to have prayer and eat a bit than to do absolute fasting without praying.
Many people do absolute fasting without praying. Many times, absolute fasting actually prevents people from praying. At the end of their fasting time, many Christians have hardly spoken to the Lord. They use all their energy to survive the absolute fast and make it to 6.00pm when they can eat.
Why do I say it is better to pray and eat than to fast absolutely and not pray? Because all the promises Jesus gave to us had to do with prayer and not fasting. Jesus Christ promised to answer prayers. Jesus never promised to answer fasting.
Look at just seven of the promises Jesus gave to people who would pray: John 14:13-14, John 15:16, John 15:7, John 16:2324, Mark 11:24, Luke 11:9-10, Matthew 6:6.
Understand what I am saying! Fasting is important for every Christian. Don’t use this as a reason not to fast. Indeed, if I have to choose between fasting and praying I would choose to pray because Jesus has promised to answer prayers!