Hi Cindy…
My heart is heavy regarding the upcoming election this week. I know there are many issues at stake, but the one issue that hits me the most is the issue of abortion. I feel this election can determine the fate of millions more unborn children….
I have decided to fast this week, and pray for divine influence on this election. Also… abortion is so heavy on my heart, that I think I need to pray and fast regarding what I can do to change the direction America is going…. I feel that I have to in some way speak out for the ones who have no voice. I just don’t know how.
Anyway… I need some scriptures on fasting. I know you fasted before, and I never have really fasted. If any scriptures come to your mind, please shoot them this way.
Thank You…
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FROM CINDY…
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Hi!
Oh! Angela, I love your heart. In fact, your heart for our country blesses me today as I grieve over the state of our union and pray for our people to rise up and be who they really are! Americans are amazing when we get back to the heartbeat of our government. I have been so blessed to see Americans come together to help one another when tragedies hit. We were there when God did miracles through real people from every walk of life in America during Katrina. Greatness is there. We need it as never before. Our role as Christians is to pray and fast and do our part to preserve the freedoms that we hold dear.
Angela, my favorite example of fasting that is very, very doable in Scripture is the “Daniel Fast” from the book of Daniel. Most of my fasts have been along this line. In a Daniel fast, we give up some things that we really enjoy or that we may even find ourselves in bondage to—I typically give up things that I probably should give up every day like coffee, soft drinks, tea, sometimes meat and desserts. It is amazing to me when I give those up and focus on praying more intensely things move that normally seem impossible and immovable. I think it is because of several reasons.
First, it is too easy for food to distract us and lead us astray. The enemy knows that. I can honestly tell you that there are too many times that my first focus of the day is to FIND MY CAFFEINE. It is truly sad considering that my first focus should be to run to my Heavenly Father and let HIM FILL MY CUP UP for the day! The excitement. The clarity. And, the health that result. The enemy would love for us to run to anything but our Bread of Life.
Also, Scripture tells us that certain things do not move or change without fasting and prayer (Matthew 17:21 and Mark 9:29). I have seen finances change, supernatural protection for my husband and children, health changes, and even the hearts of others change as I have fasted and prayed diligently. Just imagine how things would change if we united as the Body of Christ to pray and fast!
Sweet friend, I would love to encourage you to pray and fast this week. I will be your prayer partner. We will join together and watch what God will do on our behalf. We serve a mighty God—Almighty God. He promises to move when we will fast and pray. Remember 2 Chronicles 7: 14:
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Love,
Cindy
Another beautiful post Cindy. Our country seems to be under judgment but the King of Kings IS on the throne. The election and the days, months and years afterward are in HIS hands and we can can rest peacefully in that fact.
God does call us to fast and pray and the faithful should be doing just that – for those precious babies who are now awaiting to be born but might not be, for our nation, for our leaders, for the election and for God’s merciful hand on us.
I like the Daniel suggestion. Often people think of the extremes as far as fasting go and then they just don’t do it.
Thank you!
I wanted to add some Scriptures that have spoken to me in a special way in regards to fasting . . . I don’t know if I could limit it to a couple verses, but since we are talking about a week of fasting, Isaiah 55-58 (and beyond) have such richness in regards to crying out to God.
Chapter 58 shares specific encouragement for those fasting as well.
Why fast?
Verse 4: to make your voice heard on high
6: to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to let the oppressed go free
7: to divide your bread with the hungry (use that unspent grocery money on someone in need)
9: Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; You will cry, and He will say, “Here I am.”
I could go on, but just wanted to share a bit of what God has used to ‘feed’ me in the past.
~Erin
I can’t even believe how this question and answer has touched me. I really needed to hear this right now. Thank you.
I have been having some issues that I need answered. Some are just needing an answer or decision one way or the other, some are needs that I didn’t know what to do about them!
I, too, have struggled with the upcoming election. As I look up and down our block with my McCain sign and all the Obama signs on everyone else’s lawn – it’s easy to get disheartened. *I* don’t have an answer for the election – except to vote and pray to He who knows the outcome already.
Elizabeth Bowen
Angela sent this to me by email:
Cindy,
Thank you for your reply..
I’m doing the Daniel Fast…. My church does a Daniel Fast each year around October in prep for our Nightmare Production…. but I’m fasting this time on my own…
Yes, America is amazing. I really don’t think that the elite media truely reflects the heart of America….
America is full of people who are generous and willing to step up and help each other in times of need. American’s at our core have generous hearts that can move with compassion…
Yes, we need to stand… hold fast to what we believe, and allow God to use us to fight for the freedom we now have…
But it grieves me to hear the elite media broadcast and advertise and call what is evil good. I’m grieved to read when I hear the elite media tell a woman she is “stuck” with an unwanted baby if she makes a mistake or is a victim of someone elses willful rebellion.
I don’t think that Obama is as favorable as the media is making him out to be. They focus on polls, and surveys, and what not…. but those are polls that were targeted to people they know favor Obama. I know they do this to make Obama seem greater than he is. To make him more popular…. and to cause people to follow along with the popularity vote…
Anyway… thanks for your reply. And thanks for offering to be my prayer partner. And thanks for that verse.. it’s been running through my head all day.
Be Blessed.
Angela
Angela also sent me this by email:
Isaiah 58
Amplified Version…
CRY ALOUD, spare not. Lift up your voice like a trumpet and declare to My people their transfression nad to the house of Jacob their sins!
2 Yet they seek, inquire for, and require Me daily nad delight [externally] to know My ways, as [if they were in reality] a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me righteous judgements, they delight to draw near to God [in visible ways].
3 Why have we fasted, they say, and You do not see it? Why have we afflicted ourselves, and You take no knowledge [of it]? Behold [O Isreal], on the day of your fast [when you should be grieving for your sins], you find profit in your business, and [instead of stopping all work, as the law implies you and your workmen should do] you extort from your hired servants a full amount of labor.
4 [The facts are that] you fast only for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Fasting as you do today will not cause your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is such a fast as yours what I have chosen, a day for a man to humble himself with sorrow in his soul? [Is true fasting merely mechanical?] Is it only to bow down his head like a bulrush and to spead sackcloth and ashes under him [to indicate a condition of heart that he does not have]? Will you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord?
6 [Rather] is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the hands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every [enslaving] yoke?
7 Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house – when you see the naked, that you cover him, and that you hide not yourself from [the needs of] your own flesh and blood?
Dear God… I pray that you use us to loosen the bonds of wickedness and undo the hands of the yoke. I pray that that we would free the oppressed, and that every yoke that enslaves us would be broken.