Fasting For Change

“Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.”
Isaiah 58:4

Many of us will enter into a fast hoping to see something change in the world. When we start to fast, our prayer list might grow. We might long to see change in politics or in communities or even in our own neighborhood. These prayers are righteous prayers, no doubt, but I have found that fasting doesn’t typically impact the world around me as much as it impacts me. First and foremost, fasting changes me.

When we come to the Lord in prayer or fasting, an outward focus is a noble idea. Obviously, we should be praying for and fasting for the needs of others. Our hearts should break when we see this world and the injustices that fill it. Prayer should always have an outward focus.

But just because prayer and fasting have an outward focus does not negate the inward work that is done in it. In my own life, I have found that fasting and prayer changes my heart first. However, there is a key to this…I must allow it to change me.

In Isaiah 58, people are fasting, but they are not allowing their hearts to be changed and molded into the character of God. They are filled with contention and bitterness. They are fighting and quarreling with one another. God sees this and says that their fasting is worthless.

One of the primary goals of fasting is that our voice would be heard on high. As we fast, we lift up our prayers to God and the goal is for him to hear our prayers and that he would be moved by compassion for us. When we fast with a contentious heart though, God doesn’t hear our prayers.

This is a frightening thought for many of us. Too often we come into prayer and fasting without first giving thought to the condition of our heart. That is why fasting should always be marked by a spirit of repentance. Our hearts and minds need to be turned back to God. We are all prone to wander, like sheep, so fasting with repentance helps us to refocus back on Jesus. We are already forgiven, that’s not the point, but we do want to battle the flesh back down into submission to the Lord. Fasting helps us do that.

Prayer - Father, as we fast and pray to you today, we repent of any wrong motives we may have. We ask that you reveal any sin in our heart and give us the power to deal with it. Open our eyes to see what you are doing in us during this time of fasting. Open our hearts to hear the changes you want to make in us. Thank you Lord for hearing our prayers. Amen.