Scripture has so much to say about prayer and fasting that I think we would do well to recapture this discipline of the Christian life. I am sure if you have been following my blog posts that statement is no surprise to you at this point. I will continue to make the case by pointing to some of the people in scripture of whom it is said they fasted. It reads like a who's who list of the faith, and many of these characters are people who's lives you have studied in great detail hoping to glean from their lives things that will point you toward increasing godliness. Yet you may have you overlooked the fact that fasting was a great part of the spiritual lives of the following according to scripture:
Moses the law giver (Deuteronomy 9:9)
David the king (Psalm 35:13)
Elijah the Prophet (1 Kings 19:8)
Ester the queen (Esther 4:16)
Daniel the seer (entered a partial fast Daniel 10:3)
Anna the prophetess (Luke 2:37)
Paul the apostle (Acts 9:9)
and last but certainly not least.....Jesus the Christ (Matthew 4:2)
This is not a total list. There are many more who could be named. But this is just a smattering.
Do we think that this is a list of people who would be good examples for us to follow? Of course the only perfect one on the list is Jesus, but certainly the scripture teaches us many valuable positive lessons from the lives of some of these other individuals. Why would we ignore a discipline then, that was a significant part of their spiritual lives?
More to come in future blog posts regarding fasting.
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