Day 4 of 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting

Devotional: 

Get in on this.

We are still in the early stages of the fast. Hopefully 4 days in you are still excited about this! You are probably a little hungry but not to bad yet. If I had to guess for most of us you are still seeking God for something specific right now. I have some great encouragements for you this morning! Joel 2:13-19 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. 14Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing— grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God. 15Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. 16Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. 17Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ” The Lord’s Answer 18Then the Lord was jealous for his land and took pity on his people. 19The Lord replied to them: “I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations. Fasting is a inward heart posture not an outward expression to the world. Fasting can be a corporate thing. It is good when Gods people set aside time to pray and fast together. God truly response when we set aside time to truly seek his face and his will!

Questions:

1. Why do you think that God makes it a point through his prophet that we should rend our hearts and not our garments?

2. Fasting should change the way that we seek God. What are you doing differently these 21 days to pursue God?

3. When God’s people fast it moves the heart of God to respond, we see this in Joel 2:19. What specifically are you seeking God to respond to? Get desperate and specific in your request.

4. God responded with grain, new wine and olive oil in Joel 2:19. What do those things represent and what does that mean for you?

Prayer:

Dear God, thank you for calling your people to set aside time to fast. God give me a spirit of humility to rend my heart and not my garment. Lord this fast is for you and no one else, I am desperate for a word for you. nothing in this world will fully satisfy me the way you do. Lord bring the provision of heaven, the joy of the lord and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Amen.