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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Author: hallsan Ordered by Date |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Role of fasting in a Christian's walk? | Neh 1:4 | hallsan | 30868 | ||
Dear Nolan, Fasting is not easy for me and I have difficulty skipping more than 2 meals, EXCEPT when I'm feeling God's hand on me. When I'm upset then fasting makes sense, because then I can devote all my time to crying out to God. And that has only really happened a couple of times. I pray for a more compassionate and tender heart so that I may get more upset about the lost, for example, and feel more genuinely moved, as Nehemiah did, by situations. I admire Nehemiah's heart so much. He was a highly placed official in the King's court, yet he humbled himself and was genuinely mournful when he heard the news about Jerusalem. How much such a heart is to be admired. The big contrast to Nehemiah's mourning and fasting is the Pharisaical practice of fasting. I have the Online Bible, which I highly recommend BTW, and it includes various commentaries, which are great additions to one's own understanding of a scripture. Luke 18:12, where the Pharisee prays proudly and disdaining the tax collector, has an interesting reference to habitual fasting. Poole's commentary has this to say about it: -- Ver. 12. Twice in the sabbath, saith the Greek, but that is ordinary, to denominate the days of the week from the sabbath; the meaning is, twice between sabbath and sabbath. Those learned in the Jewish Rabbins tell us, that the Jews were wont to fast twice in a week, that is, the Pharisees and the more devout sort of them; once on the second, another time on the fifth day (which are those days which we call Monday and Thursday). From whence some tell us that Wednesday and Friday come to be with us fasting days or fish days. The Christians in former times, thinking it beneath them to be less in these exercises than the Jews, would have also two fasting days each week; and those not the same with the Jews, that they might not be thought to Judaize. If that custom had any true antiquity, I doubt not but they fasted after another rate than the papists or others now do, who pretend a religion to those days. But neither was the Pharisees practice, nor the practice of Christians, in this thing to be much admired or applauded. For fasting was always used in extraordinary cases; and the bringing extraordinary duties into ordinary practice usually ends in a mere formality. It is a good rule, neither to make ordinary duties extraordinary or rare, nor yet extraordinary duties ordinary: the doing of the first ordinarily issues in the loss of them, and quite leaving them off; the latter, in a formal lifeless performance of them. -- SO here we see a possible explanation of eating fish on Fridays practiced among the Catholics. And the lifelessness invoked because of the ordinariness of the practice. Also, it was commanded on the day of atonement back in the Leviticus, and was useful in times of extraordinary need. But I don't believe it was intended for Christians to lower fasting to an ordinary practice. It is a form of worship that is special and called for by distress or extraordinary need. That is my conviction from reading the bible and I'd love to hear what other folks understand about this spiritual discipline. To respond to your sharing about your difficulty praying . . . I go in stages. Most days I am in "continual prayer" but I realize that my faith is built when I pray. I have had some answers to my prayers that have been powerful and it wasn't because I prayed at length. During one difficulty I prayed for God to reveal the truth and all that needed to be revealed in the situation. He revealed the truth of the situation and went further to reveal the sin in my life that I needed desperately to repent of. I wasn't expecting Him to be so faithful and thorough!!! :) But I count it up to joy to received God's discipline through my prayer. Fasting can be like that, too. Sometimes our worship can be more intense than others, and when we're fasting is likely to be so. |
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2 | Role of fasting in a Christian's walk? | Neh 1:4 | hallsan | 30817 | ||
I've been studying out fasting in the Bible since last year and fasting periodically. There are no biblical laws that command regular fasting for the Christian. Freedom does not mean license, but opportunity. Abstaining from food is an opportunity to gain humility while crying out to God. We are commanded to deny ourselves as Christians and that is the term used for fasting in Leviticus 16:29. When Jesus was asked why his disciples did not fast, Jesus replied "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with the? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast." (Matt 9:15) It seems clear that we are expected to fast, for after His ascension, we read of the disciples fasting (Acts 13:2, 3). Motives are extremely important in fasting, as we are shown that fasting to impress is not worthy of eternal reward. Fasting must center on God. We must do it to worship Him first. In Zechariah 7:5, God asks the people ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?' There are secondary purposes as well, but first and foremost we must not fast for the benefits but to worship. The secondary purposes are important too, tho. Fasting will reveal pride, anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear, etc. if they are within us. In all the secondary values of fating, such as increased effectiveness in prayer, decision-making, deliverance from bondage, physical well-being, revelations, we can expect God to reward those who diligently seek him. A wonderful source (that I have been drawing from for this particular message) for practicals in fasting is Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster. Amazon.com has some of the pages from the book that you can browse. The pages don't deal with fasting, but with meditation, the first of the spiritual disciplines he discusses. To summarize, I have come to the conviction through the vast number of instances of fasting throughout scripture and through Matt 9 that fasting is expected. It's role is to increase our reliance and personal worship of God. It will serve to reveal those acts of our sinful nature that have not been submitted to God, and give us the strength to fully submit to God and gain the fruit of the Spirit. Sandra |
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3 | Role of fasting in a Christian's walk? | Neh 1:4 | hallsan | 25425 | ||
What the Bible says about . . . fasting http://wbsa.logos.com/article.asp?id 2820 Commanded, Lev. 16:29-31, Lev. 23:26-32 Proclaimed, Ezra 8:21-23 Observed on occasions of public calamities, 2 Sam. 1:12; afflictions, Psa. 35:13; Dan. 6:18; private afflictions, 2 Sam. 12:16; approaching danger, Esth. 4:16; ordination of ministers, Acts 13:3; 14:23. Accompanied by prayer, Dan. 9:3; confession of sin, 1 Sam. 7:6; Neh. 9:1,2; humiliation, Deut. 9:18; Neh. 9:1; reading of the Scriptures, Jer. 36:6. Habitual: by John's disciples, Matt. 9:14; by Anna, Luke 2:37; by Pharisees, Matt. 9:14; Mark 2:18; Luke 18:12; by Cornelius, Acts 10:30; by Paul, 2 Cor. 6:5; 11:27. In times of bereavement: of the people of Jabesh-gilead, for Saul and his sons, 1 Sam. 31:13; 1 Chr. 10:12; of David, at the time of Saul's death, 2 Sam. 1:12; of his child's sickness, 2 Sam. 12:16,21-23; of Abner's death, 2 Sam. 3:35. Prolonged: for three weeks, by Daniel, Dan. 10:2,3; forty days, by Moses, Ex. 24:18; 34:28; Deut. 9:9,18; Elijah, 1 Kin. 19:8; Jesus, Matt. 4:2; Mark 1:12,13; Luke 4:1,2. See Humiliation; Humility. (2.) They must afflict their souls. They must refrain from all bodily refreshments and delights, in token of inward humiliation and contrition of soul for their sins. They all fasted on this day from food (except the sick and children), and laid aside their ornaments, and did not anoint themselves, as Daniel, Le 10:3,12. David chastened his soul with fasting, Ps 35:13. And it signified the mortifying of sin and turning from it, loosing the bands of wickedness, Isa 58:6-7. The Jewish doctors advised that they should not on that day read those portions of scripture which were proper to affect them with delight and joy, because it was a day to afflict their souls. There is more I want to say about fasting and about Nehemiah, but I am new and it's late. But I wanted to start with what the Bible says. Sandra Hall |
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