PRAYER & FASTING: Fasting while you petition the Lord

Ezra 8:23 | So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and he heard our prayer.

Nehemiah 1:1-4 | In late autumn, in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign, I was at the fortress of Susa. Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem. They said to me, “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.” When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.

• Prayer changes our perspective - it helps us see things God’s way. Fasting reminds us to pray more often and gives us the time to do it. What are you praying for right now? Why might fasting for a season as you pray be a good idea?

• Nehemiah doesn’t just persistently pray, he also fasts. Thinking about your own prayer, how would fasting make you even more committed to prayer? Do you think fasting would make you more or less persistent in prayer? Why?

• In this example of fasting and prayer, God answers. Do you think He answers because his people fasted? Do you think fasting automatically gets you what you want from God? Have you ever been tempted to fast to earn God’s blessing?

• Thinking about how prayer helps us understand God’s ways, how might your prayer at the beginning of a time of fasting change by the end of that time of fasting?