Prayer and fasting
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6
Does fasting "supercharge" your prayers? it certainly weakens your body. i used to regularly skip my lunch so i could pray for my missionary friends around the world. but i had a progression of sorts:
week 1 - stay hungry until i got home and ate dinner with my family.
week 2 - snack as soon as i got home.
week 3 - snack on anything leftover from catered meetings at work.
week 4 - seeking out the snacks as i went on a "prayer walk" around the company's corriders
week 5 - skipping lunch to pray then eating lunch right afterwards.
week 6 - praying while i eat lunch
week 7 - eating lunch, no prayer support for those people i had told i would support them with prayer
i have to admit that even though i'm no longer fasting for them, i don't pray for them as much either. even though i was ultimately playing a religious game i was praying for them more than i do now. fasting seems to be related to repentance and serious intercession, both of which are related to righteousness. when i fasted for my missionary friends i was asking God to break his kingdom into their fields in new ways and new power, which would result in more righteousness. if i'm fasting for righteousness in their fields how is it that i get filled? sound like one of those wild and crazy reversals of God's. He is good.
i gotta get back into this. i did do it a couple weeks ago in response to the desires of the persecuted Church in India. and things turned out well for them. and now the church is again asking for more prayer and fasting, see thursday's post.
Does fasting "supercharge" your prayers? it certainly weakens your body. i used to regularly skip my lunch so i could pray for my missionary friends around the world. but i had a progression of sorts:
week 1 - stay hungry until i got home and ate dinner with my family.
week 2 - snack as soon as i got home.
week 3 - snack on anything leftover from catered meetings at work.
week 4 - seeking out the snacks as i went on a "prayer walk" around the company's corriders
week 5 - skipping lunch to pray then eating lunch right afterwards.
week 6 - praying while i eat lunch
week 7 - eating lunch, no prayer support for those people i had told i would support them with prayer
i have to admit that even though i'm no longer fasting for them, i don't pray for them as much either. even though i was ultimately playing a religious game i was praying for them more than i do now. fasting seems to be related to repentance and serious intercession, both of which are related to righteousness. when i fasted for my missionary friends i was asking God to break his kingdom into their fields in new ways and new power, which would result in more righteousness. if i'm fasting for righteousness in their fields how is it that i get filled? sound like one of those wild and crazy reversals of God's. He is good.
i gotta get back into this. i did do it a couple weeks ago in response to the desires of the persecuted Church in India. and things turned out well for them. and now the church is again asking for more prayer and fasting, see thursday's post.
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