Fasting And Praying

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JoshMal

Senior Member
Jan 18, 2018
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#1
I want you all to give me your views and opinions on what fasting is all about.
 

Waggles

Senior Member
Sep 21, 2017
3,338
1,261
113
South
adelaiderevival.com
#2
Fasting represents an attitude and effort of wanting to
gain the victory over a particular problem.
Eveyday praying can become routine and while not wasted
can lack importunity - even for a Pentecostal Christian who
can also pray in the Holy Spirit.

Praying and fasting is like rolling up one's sleeves and getting
to work to fix this and claim the victory.
I am serious about this problem, ailment or tribulation and I need it
dealt with.
Fasting is denying the flesh both naturally and spiritually.

We often have prayer and fast days - usually from Friday to Saturday -
I guess it represents (more symbolically) sacrifice > giving up comfort
of the flesh for a spiritual victory.
 

Shamah

Senior Member
Jan 6, 2018
2,735
692
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#3
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Isaiah 58:1-14, "58:1, "“Cry aloud, do not spare. Lift up your voice like the shophar. Declare to My people their transgression, and the house of Ya‛aqoḇ their sins."58:2, "“Yet they seek Me day by day, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the right-ruling of their Elohim. They ask of Me rulings of righteousness, they delight in drawing near to Elohim."58:3, "They say, ‘Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our beings, and You took no note?’ “Look, in the day of your fasting you find pleasure, and drive on all your labourers."58:4, "“Look, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wrongness. You do not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high."58:5, "“Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his being? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]יהוה[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]?"58:6, "“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loosen the tight cords of wrongness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to exempt the oppressed, and to break off every yoke?"58:7, "“Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, and cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?"58:8, "“Then your light would break forth like the morning, your healing spring forth speedily. And your righteousness shall go before you, the esteem of [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]יהוה [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]would be your rear guard."[/FONT]
 

Dino246

Senior Member
Jun 30, 2015
24,555
13,320
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#4
Richard Foster's book Celebration of Discipline gives an excellent, experience-based explanation of fasting, among other spiritual practices.

Fasting is difficult at first, and gets easier (or, perhaps, less daunting) the longer and more frequently you engage in it.

Start with prayer, progress slowly, don't beat yourself up for not being stronger, and don't advertise it to others. :)
 

Shamah

Senior Member
Jan 6, 2018
2,735
692
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#5
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Psalms 35:11-16, “Ruthless witnesses rise up; They ask me that which I knew not. They reward me evil for good, bereaving my life. But I, when they were sick, I put on sackcloth; I humbled my being with fasting; and my prayer would return to my own bosom. I walked about as though he were my friend or brother; I bowed down mourning, as one mourning for a mother. But they rejoiced at my stumbling And gathered together; The smiters gathered against me, And I did not know it; They tore in pieces without ceasing, With unclean ones, mockers at feasts, Gnashing at me with their teeth.”[/FONT]
 

Shamah

Senior Member
Jan 6, 2018
2,735
692
113
#6
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Psalms 69:6-15, “Let not those who wait for You, O Master [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]יהוה [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]of hosts, Be ashamed because of me; Let not those who seek You Be humbled because of me, O Mighty One of Yisra’yl. Because I have borne reproach for Your sake; Shame has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my brothers, And a foreigner to my mother’s children; Because ardour for Your house has eaten me up, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. And I wept in my being with fasting, And it became my reproach. And when I put on sackcloth, I became a proverb to them. They who sit in the gate talk about me, And I am the song of the drunkards. But as for me, my prayer is to You, O [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]יהוה[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif], At an acceptable time, O Mighty One. In the greatness of Your loving-commitment, Answer me in the truth of Your deliverance. Rescue me out of the mire, And let me not sink. Let me be rescued from those who hate me, And out of the deep waters. Let not a flood of waters overflow me, Nor let the deep swallow me up, Nor let the pit shut its mouth on me.”[/FONT]
 

Shamah

Senior Member
Jan 6, 2018
2,735
692
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#7
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Matthew 6:16-18, “And when you fast, do not be sad-faced like the hypocrites. For they disfigure their faces so that they appear to be fasting to men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place. And your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly.”[/FONT]
 

OneFaith

Senior Member
Sep 5, 2016
2,270
369
83
#8
Fasting means no food, only water. Some use the phrase ‘a juice fast’, that’s not fasting, that’s dieting. Fasting means going a length of time without food- that’s why they call the first meal of the day break-fast- cause you’re breaking your fast after sleeping all night.

After three days of fasting your body stops trying to get nourishment from your stomach and turns to your stored fat. It takes a lot of energy to digest food. So when you fast your body can use that energy for other things- like healing and mental clarity. This is why Jesus told the apostles that casting out demons requires fasting- a much stronger prayer.

Certain people must never fast- those still growing taller, pregnant or nursing mothers, the elderly, and anyone not doing so under a doctor’s care.

 
A

Ariel82

Guest
#9
Fasting is not just denying your physical body but your spiritual lusts and desires and temptations of this world.