Why Pray with Fasting?

The fact that we haven’t heard of a national call to prayer and fasting lately tells us something about our nation. It tells us how badly we need to pray with fasting. How far we have drifted from this vital practice and God’s commandments. Our nation has become Godless. So why would someone want to call for something as deeply biblically rooted as a fast?

It used to be that presidents would call for fasting and prayer. For example, Abraham Lincoln appointed a day of nationwide humiliation, fasting, and prayer. He said, in part:

“I do by this my proclamation designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer.  . . .  All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teaching that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace.” *

Does that sound like something we need in this time? There may not be a national call to fast, but we can still fast. There may only be pockets of people fasting and praying, but that’s better than none. Will you be one of them? I hope you’re joining us in our three-day fast, November 19, 20, and 21. (If you’ve missed it, choose any three days.)

Why pray with fasting? Many people called for fasts in the Bible. One common purpose of fasting was for repentance and sorrow over sin:

Joel declared a holy fast for repentance.

Jeremiah proclaimed a national fast for the people to turn from their evil ways.

Ezra mourned and fasted over the faithlessness of the exiles.

Daniel fasted and confessed his sin and the sin of his people. Daniel 9:3 says, “Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking Him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.”

You can see this theme of repentance in Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation, and we also see it clearly in Joel 2:12-13, where the Lord Himself declares a fast:

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

The weeping, mourning, and rending of garments were forms of humility and deep grief over sin. God tells us to “rend” our heart. Rend means to tear or break into pieces. When was the last time our hearts were truly broken over, not only the sins of our nation, but for our own sins?

We fast to pray and ask God to move in our nation, but we also fast to confess our sins and seek God’s mercy. And until we truly confess and repent of our sins, personal and national… Well, I’ll let you read it yourself:

Isaiah 59:2 – Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

Psalm 66:18 – If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

2 Chronicles 7:14 – IF my people who are called by my name 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.

In Daniel 9:3-23, Daniel prayed with fasting to confess his sins and the sins of his people. Let’s be like Daniel.

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