Day5
Biblical Fasting
5 Steps For Success
Step5
“So we fasted and sought our God for this, and He was moved by our prayers.”
Ezra 8:23 MEV
“O God of my life, I’m lovesick for you in this weary wilderness. I thirst with the deepest longings to love you more, with cravings in my heart that can’t be described. Such yearning grips my soul for you, my God! I’m energized every time I enter your heavenly sanctuary to seek more of your power and drink in more of your glory. For your tender mercies mean more to me than life itself. How I love and praise you, God! Daily I will worship you passionately and with all my heart. My arms will wave to you like banners of praise. I overflow with praise when I come before you, for the anointing of your presence satisfies me like nothing else. You are such a rich banquet of pleasure to my soul. I lie awake each night thinking of you and reflecting on how you help me like a father. I sing through the night under your splendor-shadow, offering up to you my songs of delight and joy! With passion I pursue and cling to you. Because I feel your grip on my life, I keep my soul close to your heart.”
Psalms 63:1-8 TPT
Cross references
Jeremiah 29:12-13;
1 Chronicles 5:20
Crave More
David so wonderfully expresses his yearning for a deeper relationship with God in Psalm 63.
Do you crave more from your relationship with God?
We all have experienced a time or two when we crave more of something.
Perhaps we can most easily relate to a pregnant woman having a craving.
Biblical fasting is a way for us to come closer to our Creator whether, like Ezra, we crave more help or like David, we yearn for more of His presence.
P.R.A.Y.
Y-is for
YEARN for more of God. Seek Him first. Prayer is a conversation. A tool for communion with your Heavenly Father. The more you invest in your conversation with God, the more you will see growth and change in your life. To yearn is to long for deeply. Develop a listening habit in your prayer time. Yearn for His presence and learn to receive from your Father.
Click these links to review our study on yearning in prayer from a year ago or continue past them for todays lesson.
jacqiedbach.com/post/develop jacqiedbach.com/post/longing-4-you jacqiedbach.com/post/heavenly-sanctuary
Step5
Proclaim your fast before the Lord
Simply:
Open your fast in prayer dedicating this time to Him and expressing a desire to fellowship with Him.
You may decide to anoint your head with oil as you pray and then wash it off as not to appear to be fasting.
Remember what we do in secret the Lord rewards openly.
Make a quality decision and say for example, “Father, with You as my helper, In Jesus name I commit today and until this time tomorrow….”
You would state here your specific type, purpose and length of fast.
Doing this will make it firm and you will stick to it.
You may want to write it in your journal as well.
The purpose of our specific fast together is for wisdom, understanding, revelation knowledge and direction for this group; Seed 4 Your Soul Devotional Bible Study Group.
Some of you may be new to Biblical fasting, but I have been practicing this type of fasting since I was seventeen years old.
That being said, I am still discovering new things about the process.
For me, most of the time when I have fasted in the past, I needed something. Whatever the category; physical, spiritual or financial I needed something from God.
It grieves me to say that I can probably count on one hand the times that I fasted simply because I crave more of Him or yearn for a closer relationship.
Can you relate?
Action Step
The amazing thing about God is that He doesn’t hold our limitations or weaknesses against us.
In order to develop a stronger yearning for Him, we simply lean in or press in to Him.
Just ask God to give you a desire for more of Him.
Yearning happens on the inside. It’s a spiritual thing.
5 Steps To Biblical Fasting
Don’t Rush In-clear your schedule.
Plan What You Will Consume-what type of fast and how long.
Decide The Purpose-make a list.
Schedule Time To Read Your Bible, Pray and Journal and don’t forget to PRAISE
Proclaim Your Fast Before The Lord
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