I proclaimed a fast

Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, "The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him." So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer.

Ezra 8v21-23

I wonder how God’s people ever got away from fasting. Despite that the fact that it is practiced in the Old and New Testament and mentioned in the gospels, Acts, and the epistles there are vast segments of the church where fasting is rarely if ever practiced.

Sometimes desperate times required desperate measures. Ezra and the people were facing opposition to their task of a full return to Jerusalem. The people in the land had grown accustomed to the Jews being gone. Most of them were not even born when the Jews left. In their minds this was not their land.

And yet they had to go back because God told them to. It was a daunting task. The odds were against them, and the chips were down.

So how did Ezra respond?

‘Then I proclaimed a fast…that we might humble ourselves before God, to seek from Him the right way.’

Wow! I really like that. Ezra tells us what he did and why he did it. When they did not know how to deal with a situation they decided to fast.

I have done a little studying on fasting in the scripture and it seems that in a general sense, at least, fasting is for when we just don’t know what to do. When faced with a demon possessed man that they could not deal with they brought him to Jesus. Jesus’ response? ‘This kind of thing is not solved except through prayer and fasting.’

Since I have lived in Ireland and been involved with a church plant I have learned the importance of prayer and fasting when dealing with especially desperate situations. Desperate times, so to speak, do demand desperate measures.

No one can question the fact that we live in desperate days. Maybe it is time for the church as a whole to re-examine this whole concept of fasting and prayer.