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[2]LEXINGTON, Ky. (BP) – Fasting is replacing food with God. You’re surrendering the most basic, hourly desire of hunger to God.
Hunger feeds us a lie. The food only lasts a few hours. You’re hungry again; the empty feeling returns. Hunger is a returning customer. Physical hunger is discontent – Jesus declared after feeding 5,000 people, “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry” (John 6:35). Your appetite directs your day – where and what you eat. Jesus is calling, “Let me fill your most basic desire, and it’s not food.”
Replacing your hunger for food with a hunger for God is key to spiritual renewal. This renewal is for Christians, churches and our nation. Churches should be filled with Christians on Election Day who are fasting. Pastors should be calling their people to fast Tuesday. We should not discount this pivotal time.
What are you fasting for on Election Day?
- Spiritual renewal in America. Fast for revival in our nation.
- Christians and churches to become bold witnesses for the Gospel. Fast for lost people to be saved.
- Politics is not America’s solution. An election will not solve our problems. We need to be unified under the pledge: One nation under God. Fast that our nation won’t live by bread alone.
We have to quit looking to the wrong people to solve America’s problems. The solution to America’s problem is a hunger for God. Your hunger for God is what you, your family, your church and America needs.
King Jehoshaphat of Judah was facing a battle with a vast army from beyond the Dead Sea. The king was afraid and resolved to seek the Lord. His solution was a national fast for all Judah. The nation gathered to seek the Lord (2 Chronicles 20:1-4).
[3]The answer to Jehoshaphat’s fast came to Jahaziel, who told the king, “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast number, for the battle is not yours, but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15).
God might answer your fast through a Jahaziel – an unlikely person who has a message from the Lord. Fasting is a God-centered discipline. You’re telling God, “My hunger’s for you. Lord, only you have the answers.”
There’s a famine in our land. The food our nation needs is God. Election Day is a September 11 moment – a day of uncertainty and potential discord or renewal. There’s fear and discouragement all around. Now is the time for Christians, pastors, and churches to boldly lead in calling our nation to spiritual renewal – beginning with a national fast.
Spiritual milestones come from fasting. Use this Election Day to draw people together and closer to God. Open your church for folks to stop by and pray for our nation. Host a lunch-hour prayer service on Tuesday.
Fasting looks to the future. It’s a purification of our souls. Richard Foster wrote in “The Celebration of Discipline:” “More than any other discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. … We cover up what is inside of us with food and other things.” Fasting exposes us. We become empty and long to fill ourselves with God.
Many believers have filled this political season with reading, arguing and fighting online with strangers over politics. God is looking for you to fill your time with fasting for our nation instead of fighting for it.
Fasting deeply connects you to God. Jesus assumed his followers would fast (Matthew 6:16). Make a commitment to feast at God’s table rather than your kitchen table. I can’t solve all America’s problems, but God can. Christian, will you fast for our nation on Tuesday (Nov. 3)?
Daniel Ausbun is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky.