A Fasted Lifestyle – Tues 4 September 2007

I hope you remembered to forego you cornflakes this morning!

Rachel Hickson writes the following about fasting in “Supernatural Communication”:

Why do fasting and prayer go together? I believe it is because prayer is so much more than words. God uses attitudes to come alongside prayer to expand our prayer life. Fasting is so complementary to prayer because both these acts involve sacrifice, and it is the attitude of sacrifice that creates an atmosphere, which attracts the heart of God. In fasting God is asking us to exchange our natural appetite for our spiritual appetite. That is all fasting is really: is saying to God, “I want You more that I want my food!”

Fasting is giving something up for a season as a specific offering to God and then connecting that sacrifice to definite times of prayer. It is this connection that is important. That’s why the Bible says, “Fast and pray”….When we connect fasting and prayer together something dynamic happens. It moves our prayers beyond words.

In Matthew 6:16-18 we see the small phrase “when you fast…” It is a “when” rather than an “if” which means the Bible is expecting you to fast occasionally. It is not an optional extra for the superstar Christian. Apart from valid medical reasons, we should expect fasting to be part of our prayer life for short seasons.”

I find fasting makes me more aware of God throughout the day adding to the significance of my times of prayer and prompting me to more prayer throughout the day.

More and more people are sensing a call to prayer and fasting in faithfulness to God and in response to the needs of our world and the critical time in which we live, especially those who have been on the recent Omega courses and the Outreach Task Group.

Please follow this link to an article where I set out a little about fasting and its value and importance. There will soon be other useful resources on fasting & prayer on the web site.

http://www.stmatthews.org.uk/Group/Group.aspx?id=56369

Today maybe you could start by simply missing one meal and spend that time with God.