Worshiping with Fasting

At Lent, many individuals give up a vice or habit for the 40 days.  This is a form of worship and praising God with our bodies.

Others fast in order to lose weight or detoxifying their bodies.

The scriptures often discuss fasting and prayer.   Some of these verses include:

  • Acts 13:2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit

    Daniel and his friends fasted on vegetables

    said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

  • Acts 14:32 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.
  • Daniel 10:3  I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.
  • Exodus 34:28  Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

    Daniel and his friends honored God with their actions

  • Joel 2:12 “Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
  • Luke 2:37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.
  • Luke 18:12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
  • Psalm 69:10 When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn
  • Nehemiah 1:4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

So how can we worship through fasting?

  1. Give up something for Lent
  2. Give up a habit or vice at any time of the year for a week, month or longer
  3. Remember that our bodies are the temple of God as we eat
  4. Use fasting to heal our bodies

So what are some reasons to fast:

  1. Fast as a means of worship

    what will you give up?

  2. Fast to allow God to speak to our hearts
  3. Fast to hear from God
  4. Fast for answers to prayers
  5. Fast due to a need
  6. Fast to praise God
  7. Fast to draw closer to God
  8. Fast to become more like God
  9. Fast as a means of prayer

How do you use fasting as a means of worship?

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