Fasting...

Today I have decided to fast, meaning not to eat anything all day long, just drink water. Why you may ask? Good question, today I will show you why many Christians decide to fast, even if only for a day.

First, there are many examples in the Bible about people fasting, but along with fasting they pray. Which also is something that I will be doing; anyway, I will name just a few of the people who fasted and prayed in the Bible and why they did it.

Before I give you the examples, many times people fasted because they wanted an answer to prayer, or they were pleading with God about something. So with that, here is our first example…

David fasted and prayed when he heard the judgment of God over his newborn son. This was after he had sinned with Bathsheba; the Lord had said that the little one needed to die for David’s sin. So David, knowing that the Lord is merciful, tried to plead for the life of son, he did that by fasting and praying. Sometimes though God wants to teach us a valuable lesson so He doesn't always answer our prayers; such was the case with David. If God had answered David’s prayer, the people wouldn't think that what David did was as bad as it was.

Alright, so now for the next example; Esther fasted and prayed when her cousin Mordecai told her about the judgment over the Jews. She fasted and prayed for three days and three nights, before she went into the king uncalled for. Back in those days if you were to go into the king without being summoned it would mean certain death unless, he held out the golden scepter. In this case, the king did hold out the scepter and the Jews were eventually saved.

For our last example, we will use Jesus. Jesus was in the wilderness forty days and forty nights, during that time He ate nothing, but He was in such close connection with His Father that He did not feel the hunger until after the 40 days were over. That is when the Devil came to tempt Him to sin, when He was at His weakest point. Jesus had to fast for that period of time, to show us an example. Not that we should fast for 40 days, but that we should overcome our appetites and our fleshly lusts. And as we all Jesus came off victorious!

Fasting for the body, it helps to get rid of all the impurities in it. It is also good to just have a day in which you are devoted to God and praying for His will to be done. Another good reason to fast is to help you to overcome sin and temptation. If we can overcome on the point of diet, we will be able to overcome on every other point of sin!

So, in conclusion this is why I am fasting today. I want a chance to have my mind clear and spend some time with my Savior! Sometimes it is necessary for us to do these things, and sometimes the Lord tells us that we need to do it.

I should also mention quickly that there are different types of fasts, you can eat nothing all day and then you can eat at night. You can eat fruit all day and nothing else, or you can juice instead of eating. There are many different types of fasting; the one I have chosen is to eat nothing at all for all this day and nothing at night, except to drink water.

So, won’t you consider taking a fast? You never know it just might help you in a trying situation.

I want to overcome on everything, even if it is hard. Don’t you?