Sunday, March 23 || FASTING IS MANDATORY

Read : Matthew 6: 16-18

“I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; ...” - Daniel 10: 3

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught His audience about fasting. Note that Jesus did not say, “IF you fast” as though fasting were something that they might ignore or might attribute to a selected few like apostles or prophets or preachers or leaders. He stated unambiguously and categorically to all the people, saying “WHEN you fast.” So without doubt fasting should be observed by any disciple of Jesus.

What are the reasons for fasting? “Fasting is a valuable aid to personal sanctity. It is a discipline of the body with a tendency to humble the soul,” writes Arthur Wallis. Fasting helps us to seek God more earnestly, draw nearer to God and prevail with God. When heavens remain as brass despite earnest and persistent prayer, no doubt fasting offers the solution. Again and again the Israelites fasted in times of national emergency, as a result of which great disasters were averted. Fasting also plays a vital part in the ministry of deliverance. Satan is a stubborn foe and will relinquish his grasp on the soul, spirit and bodies of men only through fasting. Fasting has a way of detaching us from the materialistic world so that our thinking becomes focused on Lord.

So dear friends, let us add on to our prayer, fasting. Let fasting and prayer be a part of our life. Let us know the Lord more personally, find solutions to our problems and cast out the demonic spirits, by the power of prayer and fasting. May God give us His grace to prevail.