Fast...Show God You Are Serious

Joel 1:13-15 -  Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.

 

God sends yet another prophet named Joel to deliver his words of repentance and judgment.  He told everyone to listen…to weep….to mourn for the destruction that was coming.  God’s judgment was going to destroy all the crops they depended on for food…he was going to allow all the water to dry up from the rivers.

 

Joel called for the priests to take drastic measures to ask God to reconsider.  He told them to put on sackcloth and weep before the Lord to show their humility.  He told them to fast and pray for repentance of the people they had been given to lead and teach the commands of God.

 

It’s a reminder to me that sometimes…when we let the circumstances around us get so bad…when we have prayed and petitioned God...and are still waiting for answers…we need to show God just how serious we are with fasting. Fasting calls for us to give up something we dearly love in order to spend more intense time with God praying and seeking his direction…or praying for an important change in someone we love.  It can be giving up time on our favorite social media ap….giving up a favorite drink…going without one food…or all food for a period of time….to name just a few examples.

 

The act of fasting takes our focus off ourselves…or the problem we have been praying about …and puts the focus back on God’s reason for not giving us an answer yet.  It causes us to reflect on the sin …or behaviors we have been doing that might be blocking our answer…or even preventing us from hearing and accepting God’s “no” to our request.  It allows us to spend more time in prayer….shows God a bit of humility on our part…and provides the time to study and seek his will from study of his word.

 

Father…thank you for the reminder that fasting is way to focus my worries back on you.  Forgive me for forgetting this extreme way of spending more time with you by giving up some earthly thing that I love. Help me spend some time today considering what answer I think I need the most from you…and pray about what I should fast to ask you for an answer. Help me use the time I fast to seek you in a deeper way.  Amen.