Why Do We Fast? (Ezra 8:23)

Pray the Word with David Platt

David Platt

Christian, Bible, Baptist, Devotional, Spirituality, John Piper, Prayer, Bible Study, Religion & Spirituality, Louie Giglio, Christianity, David Platt, Pray, Radical

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2022

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Pray the Word on Ezra 8:23, David Platt answers the question, "why do we fast?" by reminding us that fasting is really about feasting on God's Word.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.
0:30.3	As you think about this verse, I want to encourage you to seriously consider what
0:38.1	fasting might look like in your life over the coming days, especially here at the beginning
0:44.5	of a year. How are you going to regularly and periodically fast? What do I mean by those two words
0:53.9	regularly and periodically? In Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6, when he's teaching about fasting,
1:00.0	when you fast, in the same chapter he says when you pray and when you give, like fasting should be
1:08.3	as automatic, as assumed, as giving is in the Christian life and as praying is in the Christian
1:17.2	life. But I wonder if that's actually true for most Christians. This is not something we talk about
1:24.0	a lot in many churches and it's to our detriment. Like fasting is a biblical discipline
1:32.5	that Jesus calls us to and gives us instructions for to put aside food, the acronym we use and
1:40.4	the church I pastor is F-A-S-T-F, focus on God. This is not about other people thinking you are
1:46.6	spiritual or doing this for any other means than to focus more on God by A, abstaining from food,
1:54.5	so focus on God, abstaining from food, set aside food and instead of eating, say more than I want
2:02.9	food, God, I want you more than I need food, I need you, your help, your wisdom, your direction,
2:09.1	your mercy and set aside food and substitute, this is the S and fast, substitute the time that you
2:17.2	would normally eat with extended concentrated time in prayer and in the word and feasting on God
2:26.7	during that time. So it's not just missing a meal, sometimes we get so busy, we miss meals. That's
2:32.0	not fasting. Substitute the time that you would normally eat with extra devotion to prayer and
2:39.2	the word and imploring God to use language from Ezra chapter 8 and then T, so F, focus on God, A,
2:46.5	abstain from food, S, substitute that time that you'd be eating with prayer in the word and then T,
2:53.1	taste and see that the Lord is good, discover what David writes in Psalm 63, God, you are my God,
3:03.3	earnestly I seek you, my soul thirst for you, my body longs for you and I am satisfied in you more
	...

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