A Sacrifice and Plea

Throughout biblical history many significant events have taken place after a time of fasting and praying.  The Ten Commandments were revealed to Moses after his forty-day fast on Mount Sinai.  The deliverance of Israel from imminent annihilation came after Esther fasted.  Jehoshaphat declared a fast in response to threatening enemies, and he prevailed.  The insight and foreknowledge of Daniel was due to his fasting lifestyle.  And Jesus Himself began His public ministry after a forty-day fast.  In the same way that God gave direction, subverted enemies, and shifted people’s reality after fasting and praying, we can affect change in our culture and our society through our corporate commitment to fast and pray.

Fasting is a decision to give up food in order to pursue our passion for Christ and God’s will in our lives, our communities, and in the world.  It’s a time of self-sacrifice and redirection for the sake of this next generation.  Together we will cry out to God for people throughout the nation to have a perpetual encounter with Jesus that stirs hearts and ignites revival.  With one accord, we’re pleading God for a mind renewal within a society of degradation, and we’re making supplication for the manifestation of His glory in the midst of all darkness.

Together we will surrender our power and strength before the living God for the harvest of souls, for effectiveness in our ministry to others, and success in the development of the kingdom of God.  By God’s grace and mercy people will declare, “Jesus is Lord”, and by God’s power our communities will experience “times of refreshing.”

Our role is to plead earnestly to God, not because He’s unwilling to transform people’s lives of His own volition, but because He’s a God of cause and effect.  And if we really want change in the world, He’s given us a directive along with a promise, that if, “My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). In other words, our humility before Him is the answer to societal ills.  Our praying and fasting is the prelude to our effectiveness.  Our deference to Him, and our submission to His way, through fasting and prayer, will produce the results we desire. Therefore, we can and we will pray.

Qwynn Gross