15/01/2024
DAY:
015/366
DATE:
15.01.2024
THE SPRING OF LIVING WATERS, flowing everyday, drink of it and be satisfied...
OPENING:
Father of lives that loves intimacy with man, I pray may you direct our feet this day by your word.
Amen
REFLECTIONS:
Our degree of Intimacy with God depends upon how consistent is our relationship with Him and the tenacity of it based on how valuable we take it.
SCRIPTURE:
James 4:4
"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God".
INTRODUCTION:
This means a state or feeling of active opposition or hostility between people
OUR INSPIRATION:
Fasting is abstaining, in some significant ways, from our routine activities and food to focus on God.
Usually it is food and drink but it can also be ministry, cell phone, computer, e-mail, short videos, comedy, relationship, etc.
ITS IMPORTANCE:
1. Fasting breaks the habit of always satisfying our own needs;
2. It makes us depend on God to satisfy our needs for us and it must be taken seriously and prayerfully;
3. It must never be done as a ritual but rather as a heartfelt seeking of God’s will and glory in one’s life and the life of the church as well as remaining in intimacy with God (Isaiah 58:3-9; Matthew 6:16-18).
OBSERVE:
1. Moses fasted during the 40 days and 40 nights he was on Mount Sinai to receive the law from God (Exodus 34:28).
2. King Jehoshaphat called for a fast in all Israel when they were about to be attacked by the Moabites and Ammonites (2 Chronicles 20:3).
3. In response to Jonah's preaching, the people of Nineveh fasted and put on sackcloth (Jonah 3:5).
4. David fasted when he knew that Saul and Jonathan had been killed (2 Samuel 1:12).
5. Nehemiah had a time of prayer and fasting when he heard that Jerusalem was in ruins (Nehemiah 1:4).
6. Anna "worshipped night and day, fasting and praying" at the Temple (Luke 2:37).
7. Jesus fasted for 40 days.
