Daily Office Day 1 - Fast with Purpose...to strengthen prayer

Daily Office Day 1

Fast with Purpose…to strengthen prayer  *

1 ) Silence, stillness, and centering before God (2min)

2) Scripture Reading – Ezra 8:21-23

“There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, ‘The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.’ So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.”

3) Devotional
When Ezra was about to lead a group of exiles back to Jerusalem, he proclaimed a fast in order for the people to seek the Lord earnestly for safe passage. They were to face the many dangers without military protection during their nine-hundred-mile journey. This was no ordinary matter to be brought to God in prayer.

There’s more to a biblical fast than abstaining from food, without a spiritual purpose for your fast, it’s just a weight loss fast. “Whenever men are to pray to God concerning any great matter, “ wrote John Calvin, it would be expedient to appoint fasting along with prayer.”

There’s something about fasting that sharpens the edge of our intercessions and gives passion to our supplications. So it has frequently been used by the people of God when there is special urgency about the concerns they lift before the Father.

The Bible does not teach the fasting is a kind of spiritual hunger strike that compels God to do our bidding. If we ask for something outside of God’s will, fasting does not cause him to reconsider. Fasting does not change God’s hearing so much as it changes our praying.

4) Questions to Consider

Will you consider fasting with purpose?

Are there self-centered reasons or fears you need to confess about entering into this fast?

Are there changes you need to make in your prayer life or in your prayers?

5) Prayer

LORD, help me to fast with a purpose. Fasting is not about what I cannot do or what I cannot eat. This time is about You – about who You are and what You care for. Holy Spirit continue to lead me to give up what I must in this time of fasting in order to strengthen my prayers this day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

*portions of today’s Daily Office have been taken from “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life” by Donald S. Whitney