Topic: Step Four in Crisis: Show God You’re Serious [RICK WARREN Devotional 12 November 2024]

Click HERE for Previous MESSAGES

Step Four in Crisis: Show God You’re Serious

by Rick Warren — November 12, 2024

“As I prayed, I fasted and wore rough sackcloth, and I sprinkled myself with ashes.”

Daniel 9:3 (TLB)

Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9 provides us with a great model for how to pray during a crisis. In the last few devotionals, we’ve learned from this passage to let God speak to us before we speak to him. Then, we focus our attention on God and seek him. And, we express our desires with emotions.

Next, the kind of prayer God answers during a crisis is one where we demonstrate our seriousness. You need to signal to God that you are determined about your need. It isn’t just a whim or a casual thought. You need to let God see how important it is to you.

Daniel described three different ways he signaled his seriousness to God: “To show my sadness, I fasted, put on rough cloth, and sat in ashes” (Daniel 9:3 NCV).

We’re going to focus on the first thing he did: He fasted from food. Fasting is a spiritual discipline that people have employed for centuries. 

Jesus said some miracles could only happen through prayer and fasting, not by prayer alone. Why? Fasting tells God you’re serious about your prayer.

Moses fasted before he received the Ten Commandments. The Israelites fasted before they went into many of their major battles. Daniel fasted in order to receive guidance from God. Nehemiah fasted before he began a major building project. Jesus fasted in victory over temptation.

Today, there are some negative connotations to fasting because we don’t like giving up something we love. But that shows that we don’t understand the power behind fasting—not because of what we do but because of how God responds to the humility and earnestness we show when we fast over something.

Fasting doesn’t have to be related to food. It’s about removing other things from your life so you can focus on prayer. For instance, you could give up watching TV or using social media for a specific time and use that time to pray.

What other things would you consider fasting from?

Talk It Over

• What are the things you could fast from that would show God how serious you are about your prayers?
• When you’re fasting and start getting distracted by the thing you have given up, what do you think God wants you to do?
• What is something you’ve been praying about that God has not answered yet? Are you willing to fast as you pray for it?

ALSO READ: CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW US ON TWITTER ⊗ OPEN HEAVEN ⊗ JOEL OSTEEN DEVOTIONAL⊗ ABOVE ONLY ⊗ OUR DAILY BREAD ⊗ SEEDS OF DESTINY ⊗ JOYCE MEYER DEVOTIONAL ⊗ RHAPSODY OF REALITIES ⊗ JOHN HAGEE ⊗ MFM DAILY DEVOTIONALUTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST⊗DCLM DAILY MANNA ⊗ JOHN PIPER DEVOTIONAL ⊗