Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from radical dot net.

Joll chapter 1 verse 14

consecrate a fast call a solemn assembly

gather the elders in all the inhabitants call a solemn assembly.

Gather the elders in all the inhabitants of the land

to the house of the Lord your God

and cry out to the Lord. This is one of a couple times in the book of Joel where we see God

calling his people through his prophet to consecrate a fast, to set aside time, to put aside food, and to seek

God to cry out to the Lord specifically in repentance of sin.

And as I read this verse, I wonder

how regular or significant a role fasting has in your life or your family or your church.

I think that for many followers of Jesus today

fasting is not a regular or significant part of our spiritual lives.

To our detriment, that Jesus, when he taught on fasting in Matthew chapter six didn't say if you fast.

He said when you fast like just as basic as when he said right before that when you give and when you pray.

Like fasting is just as basic understood for followers of Jesus as praying is and giving is.

And so I just want to encourage you if you don't have like a regular routine of fasting, setting aside food, to the extent

what you're physically able, setting aside food is a physical expression of a spiritual reality that more than even the basic

daily necessity of food. You need God. I have more than you need a meal. You need God's

mercy. That's the picture of fasting all throughout the Bible including here in Joel chapter one.

And so I would encourage you as a follower of Jesus to have some kind of a regular routine of fasting in your life.

And then, in addition to that regular routine,

...