Category: effectiveness of fasting, God’s intervention through fasting

Author: Lisa Groen

Joel 2:12-13a reads, “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; 13 And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God,…”

Here is yet another Biblical account of fasting, weeping, and mourning going hand in hand for God’s people. It is interesting that not all Biblical accounts of these come with a prophet or with God CALLING his people to fast, but Joel 2 does. When a biblical call is given by a prophet or directly from God to a group or an individual, it usually is done with the idea that those who are called to some task, or to God, will be brought somewhere God will chose, or will go somewhere God will chose, simply by following the call, and simultaneously are told to exit or leave a place, leave their life of sin, or let go of some desired circumstance, environment, belief or tradition. 

In the case of the call of the fast in Joel 2, the options for God’s people are clear. Joel sets the stage with the prophecy about the circumstances surrounding the day of the Lord. Joel 2 sounds like a judgement from God falling on all of the earth. Indeed, it is. But Joel 1-2 sets the reader up with by allowing some blindness about what the reasons are for the worldwide judgement. There is no mention of anyone’s sin in Joel 1 or 2, and so logically we are not given the tools to “assign the blame or the cause” for the destruction in Joel 1 & 2 on anyone specifically, nor for any sin or group of sins, specifically. The on-purpose design I believe given by God in the book of Joel is to get the reader to think about and search for what could possibly be the reason for the judgement of God and the day of the Lord—the terror, the crops dying, the seeds withering, the flocks going hungry, the invasion of the army of locusts, widespread destruction, and the fire burning behind them and before them…(to mention a few of the judgements in Joel 1-2). With nothing but emergencies happening, we are given Joel 2:12-13a “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; 13 And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God.”

“Return to Me with all your heart” tells the reader they must leave something behind and go towards the Lord. It tells us those who hear Joel’s prophecy were once following the Lord, and must return. And the way it is written by not mentioning specific sins in Joel 1-2 allows for the individual to meet with God and to hear God personally speak to him or her, or remind them of scripture that points to sin, as they fast, weep and mourn for what to leave behind and what it will take to return to God.  In this way it is only with following the call to fasting, weeping, and mourning that these things become the light switch that will illuminate God’s truth for God’s people and begin to give them insight as to what to repent of and for how to return to the Lord.

The phrase “Yet even now…” speak volumes to us today to answer the call to fast, weep, and mourn, for our sins and for the sins of the God’s people and for the whole land around us. If we have reason to think we need not fast, Joel chapters 1-2 breaks apart every reason to think this way, because the day of the Lord has not yet happened. Until we see the blessings of Joel 2:13-14, 17-32 come to pass and unfold before our eyes, which appear to be the results of God’s people responding to Him, we have every reason to fast, and weep and mourn and to seek to return to the Lord, and to seek God that others around us in the church and in the world would be enabled to return to the Lord as well.

The prayer is a little longer today as I wanted to cover a lot of bases and holiday issues.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, as we know you are Sovereign, and that the day of the Lord will come, and that you have planned it, and that destruction will come with it, but you have given us and countless people the wisdom from the book of Joel. And you are wonderfully Sovereign and yet allow the space of time between Joel’s writings and the day of the Lord to encourage your people to seek you with all of our hearts. You are Sovereign and you will have your way and you do not enjoy the destruction of the wicked, and you “take no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Eze 18:23, 33:11) and there are blessings in the latter half of Joel 2 that will Sovereignly come as your people seek you. But you say in Joel 2:14 “Who knows whether He will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him…” so you call us to do our part and fast, weep, and mourn, and return to you. Please work with our humanity as we seek you. You never call us to a pursuit of no purpose. Dear Lord, may your purposes of the call in Joel for us to fast, weep and mourn and to return to You, with all of our hearts be fulfilled as we draw near to you and cry out to you. Give us grace to fast, weep and mourn and grace to return to you individually and for the people around us with all of our hearts, as you reveal things to us to repent of and also to those in our land around us, Oh Lord, as we seek you today. And as we seek you may we be refreshed and renewed and though this time of consecration may you open the doors for ministry opportunities be opened. Strengthen us in the opportunities that we now have, and for the assignments you have given us.

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Author: Lisa Groen

Today we will look briefly at one account of God’s people returning to the Lord with all their heart and how fasting is involved in this process, and have a prayer in response. Thursday we will cover Joel 2. 

1Samuel 7:3-6 Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” 4 So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth and served the Lord alone. 5 Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray to the Lord for you.” 6 They gathered to Mizpah, and drew water and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.”

In previous places in 1 Samuel, we can determine why Samuel gave the admonition for God’s people to return to the Lord with all their heart. There was a CONSEQUENCE for Israel if they did NOT return to the Lord with all their hearts. The consequences of staying where they were at “in their hearts” was to suffer the pain of the current broken social and military position Israel had amidst other persecuting nations. In 1^st Samuel this meant the Philistines would continue to be attack, harass, abuse, and control the Israelites in various ways.

A first step God gave his people as to how they were to return to the Lord with all their heart, was to “remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone”. Once Samuel spoke to them about the false gods in verse 3, they removed them in verse 4. Now that some outer obstacles were dealt with, they were ready to work on a change in their “inner life” in order to be able to follow the command to “return to the Lord with all your hearts”.  When their hearts were occupied with other gods, they were not admitting their sins to God. But by verse 6, they began admitting “We have sinned against the Lord.” (highlighted for reference) It took Samuel to point out their sin with a promise of hope in verse 3, and so their sin became a problem to them, and their sin became real to them. Perhaps they were realizing for the first time that it was their sin that had opened the door for the Philistines to constantly attack them over many years. When their sin became real to them in verse 6, they confessed their sin. If they had previously been aware of their sin, would some have confessed it already? But not until verse 6 does it mention they confessed their sin, and they undergo some great healing as a nation by God giving them great deliverance. God was responding to their change of heart, and Proverbs 28:13 was coming true for them: He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. As Israel was embracing their whole-heartedness in turning away from their sin, they fasted in verse 6 with true genuineness, because they were finally telling the truth about their sin, and finally their hearts were becoming fully engaged in fasting/mourning for their sins as they were serving God.

Verses 10-14 describe the multi-layered victory God gave them: God gave the Israelites victory against the Philistines as long as Samuel was alive, God struck the Philistines down, the Israelites recovered all the cities which the Philistines had taken, the Philistines stayed outside the borders of Israel, and Israel had peace.

Lord, as we consider the importance of fasting through many Bible examples, may we also engage our hearts in fully serving you. May we receive your direction for how to wholeheartedly serve you and do the physical work of getting rid of false gods or false loves of any kind in our life and see them for what they are—these types of things CAN open the door for the enemy to harass, attack and “invade” certain areas of our lives. We know that not every attack is due to some sin or false god in our lives, and not every hardship is a result of some sin or false god. We also know you promised that in this world we would have tribulation, and we often see lots of it, but you promised that we could be of good cheer because you have overcome the world. May we not get into speculation of why problems exist in our lives and not be prone to condemnation, but may we also as we pray for success, protection, grace for living out our Christianity, our ministries, and depend on your discernment for success. But may we also remember how right it is to weigh out honestly in our minds that famous John Calvin quote, that “The human heart is an idol factory, churning out new idols like the conveyor belt in a manufacturing plant rolling out new widgets.” May we take warning, and may you grant us good solid discernment to know if we have any sins that we are blind to that we need to repent of that may be weakening us, and may it only be from your discernment that we follow and perceive our condition. May we follow truth and have clear vision. May we mourn and grieve appropriately for our sins, and by grace forsake them and find mercy. And as we do so, may we keep the victories of 1 Samuel 7 before our minds, that you are the God who desires truth in the inner man, and you are the God who gives us a love for the truth and will cause us to truly hate any false gods we might have once loved. May we worship you singularly, and with joy wholeheartedly, and see fasting is a strategic tool of mercy that can strengthen us and sharpen us in our renouncing sin, and in turning from it and in our pursuit of you and in our living for you and living out our love for you. May you through the process that you need to take us, grant us recovery of any parts of our lives, our homes, or of the places we trod, or that we work, that have been harassed or broken into by the enemy, to us and to our loved ones, that you would restore them to us, and dedicate them afresh to you, and allow that the promise that we would live in peaceful dwelling places as in Isaiah 32:18 be granted. May you grant us that we would keep our hearts devoted to you and forever raptured by your goodness, your grace, your strength, your mercy, truth, and love, and, all the more as we see the day approaching. I pray this in your great name dear Lord, Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG