Fasting Day 7: Fresh Inspiration From the Archives

Fasting Day Seven Posts From the Archives:

• Praying for Government Leaders (Part 2): A Prayer Guide …
• Drinking Straight-up Living Water …
• Feeding Faith, Part 1 …
• Treasure in a Clay Jar …
• “Worship While You Fast” by Jentezen Franklin …
• Where is the Glory (The Samuel Fast)

As believers, we’re instructed to pray for “kings and all those in authority” (1 Timothy 2:2). It is our duty and responsibility to pray for our government leaders.

Part One of this post included a prayer for the president of the United States and his cabinet. These prayer points and scripture references can serve as a guide as you pray for all government leaders—from your local leaders to the state and federal level.

Instructions for Us as We Pray

We are to pray for our leaders and all who are in authority

“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior…” (1 Timothy 2:1-3, NKJV).

We are to pray respectfully for our leaders.

“Honor all people. … Fear God. Honor the king” (1 Peter 2:17, NKJV).

“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God” (Romans 13:1, NKJV).

“The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Proverbs 21:1, NKJV). (Tweet this)

Praying for Your Leader by Name

Too often we don’t pray for our leaders in government because:

1. We don’t know what to pray.
2. We feel we over generalize in the request itself, and also when referencing the target of the prayer (e.g. “God bless my leaders”).
3. We feel it’s hopeless to pray—our leaders will remain corrupt, deceitful, or immoral.

The bulleted list below counters each of these hindrances to prayer.

1. It includes specific requests you can make in prayer.
2. It also includes the scriptural basis for the requests, reminding you it’s not hopeless to pray such; it’s God’s will!
3. It also has a place for you to insert your leader’s name. (A quick google search should give you the names of your local, state and federal leaders.)

Fasting Day 7: Drinking Straight-up Living Water

I have a friend who has a strong dislike for drinking water. She has to force herself to drink it. And even then she has to have lemon in it to cover up the taste.

We Christians sometimes feel about God’s Living Water like my friend feels about drinking water. We flat don’t want it. Time spent with God and His Word doesn’t seem to hold a candle to entertainment, work, friends, sports, shopping. Yet, begrudgingly, we force ourselves to drink ‘boring’ water: a little time with God in the morning. But open the Bible and read it? No! We need bells and whistles — lemon — to cover the straight-up taste. Give us a devotional. A video. A sermon on TV. Something more entertaining than just the Bible. Something more than sheer time alone with God…waiting on Him in prayer.

Please do not misunderstand me. I watch many sermons and receive several devotionals by email daily. I have nothing against these great helps. However, we must be careful not to let anything substitute for our eyes on the pages of God’s word and the knees of our heart bent before Him in prayer.

If my friend were ever stranded in a hot desert with no water to drink for a few days, she would probably guzzle straight-up water the first chance she got. And love it! Thirst changes everything!

Fasting Day 7: Feeding Faith, Part 1

When the disciples came to Jesus and asked him why they couldn’t cast the demon out, Jesus told them it was because of their unbelief. You and I have the same problem today. We want to see God’s power manifested in miraculous ways in our lives. We want to experience His supernatural power, but we too have areas of unbelief. We can be filled with belief for one issue, while limiting God by unbelief in the next…without ever realizing it.

God’s power is as available to you and me today as it was to this boy. By Jesus’ remarks, it is clear that the problem wasn’t the demon, it was unbelief.

The first thing Jesus said was, “You faithless and perverse generation.” In this phrase He identified the root of their unbelief. Stovall Weems makes this connection in his book Awakening.

By “faithless” He meant they were too disconnected from God, and “perverse” meant instead that they were too connected to the world…We still have the same problem today. When we are too disconnected from God and too connected to the world and its distractions, the result is always unbelief.

How do we fix this? With prayer and fasting. Jesus told His disciples to pray and fast. As Weems states, “both were necessary, because prayer connects us to God and fasting disconnects us from the world.”

Fasting Day 7: Treasure in a Clay Jar

I’ve learned that if Ghanaians have something of value or something that is really important to them, they hide it in a place that a thief would never think of looking. They do not hide their valued possession in a nice box or in a pretty jar, but they hide it in something that won’t draw attention. Sometimes they hide them in clay jars that are typically used to put water in for the “bathroom” or for cooking and cleaning. These jars are narrow in the top, so you cannot fit your hand down into them. They are also dark on the inside so you cannot see inside. It’s pretty brilliant actually, and is apparently a very successful way of protecting your valuables. However, I learned that if they ever want to have access to their valuables, they have to break the pot. They have to smash the pot open and destroy it, in order to retrieve their treasure….

So often I lose sight of the goal, of the treasure that is within me. My goal is not success. My goal is not receiving spiritual blessings. My goal is not physical things that will perish. My goal is Him. And Him alone. Sometimes I find myself focusing on the things that are in His hand – like success with the women, peace, blessing, etc. – that I forget to keep my eyes on His face. I’m so focused on what He will do next, or what He has for me next, or what He did yesterday that I stop running after my true goal.

It’s Him. Him. That’s all I need. Please help it to be all I want… I just get in the way too often. But when I do, He begins to break me. His glory will be shown.

Christ dwells within me, and in order for His glory to be shown in me, I have to be broken. He has to break me (like the Ghanaian break their clay pots) so He can be shown.

When the armies of Ammon and Moab were invading Judah, Jehoshaphat was outnumbered and afraid. He prayed and proclaimed a fast.

When it was time for battle, he put singers out in front of the army to praise and worship God as they went to war. When they started praising, the enemy turned on one another, and God gave Jehoshaphat an astounding victory. God can do the same thing for you today!

There are:

• Ten chapters in the Bible that relate to Abraham,
• Eleven that relate to Jacob, and
• Ten devoted to Elijah and Elisha.

But there are sixty-six chapters that related to the life of David. Over 1,200 references to his name are found in the Bible. Fifty-nine times David is mentioned in the New Testament.

The most prominent Old Testament character mentioned over 1,200 times was a man of worship. There is a reason why God kept talking about David over and over. It’s because David loved the presence of the Lord.

Israel grew and prospered under King David more than any other time in its history because David was a worshipper. …

Fasting Day 7: Where is the Glory (The Samuel Fast)

Years before Samuel declared the fast, before he grew up and became a prophet and judge of Israel, the Israelites sinned against God by taking the Ark of the Covenant into battle as a good luck charm. For this offense, God allowed the Israelites to be defeated and the Ark to be taken by the Philistines. The Ark of the Covenant symbolized God’s presence – the place where He dwelled. To lose the Ark meant losing God’s presence among them. This was so grievous to the Israelites that when the wife of Phinehas (one of the priests guilty for the spiritual decay) gave birth to her child, she named him Ichabod, saying, “’The glory has departed from Israel!’ because the Ark of God had been captured. “Ichabod” means “where is the glory?”