The Fasting Benefit

Dr. Carl Lundquist found a certain habit very helpful."Instead of taking an hour for lunch," he said, "I use the time to go to a prayer room. There I spend my lunch break in fellowship with God and in prayer. And I have learned a very personal dimension to what Jesus declared, 'I have had meat to eat ye know not of.'"

Jesus implied we would fast to enjoy His presence when He said that His disciples did not need to fast when He was with them. "But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast" (Mark 2:20). So we fast out of a longing for more of Jesus, His presence, His manifest power.

Christ made fasting a time for celebration and communion.  Mark Nysewander in The Fasting Key states, "The newest and greatest purpose for fasting in the kingdom of God is for communion with your absent bridegroom, the exalted Christ."

Jesus used the term "bridegroom" again when he referred to His return at the end of the church age in Matthew 25. Our fasting says to our absent Bridegroom, "I am turning away from whatever You ask, to say, 'This much, O Jesus, I want You.'"

Today one lady who is fasting wrote that she sensed the Lord saying to her that her fasting days are to be filled with "anticipation of My revelation and celebration of My presence." Every time she takes a sip of water, she reminds herself of the Living Water!"

Those who have learned the secret of fasting say with the psalmist, "My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods (63: 5).

Thank You, Jesus, for this way to express our strong desires to you. The reward I most want for fasting is more of Your presence.

"Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy" (1 Peter 1:8).
"Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you" (Psalm 63:3).