So we fasted and implored our God for this and he listened to our entreaty.
– Ezra 8:21–23
There’s so much happening here in Ezra 8, and this story of rebuilding the temple. I love this picture of Ezra proclaiming a fast in Ezra 8:21, calling people “To humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and our goods.”
Ezra 8:21–23 depicts a longing for more than the physical needs of our bodies.
What a picture here of Ezra and God’s people saying more than we need food, we’re going to set aside food to come before you God, and implore you for safe travel, for your protection and your provision. This is just one of many pictures of fasting we see all throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament as God’s people regularly set aside food and pray and seek God in a special way, saying more than we want or need what our bodies long for in this world, we want and need you and your help.
And I just want to ask you, is fasting a regular part of your life, of your relationship with God? And if not, why not? This is clearly a part of what it means to know and worship and seek God, again all throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. Look, in Matthew 6, fasting is just as basic according to Jesus as praying is and as giving is. So what does regular fasting look like in your life?
Ezra 8:21–23 encourages us to seek God through fasting.
And I want to encourage you if you don’t have some kind of intentional rhythm of fasting, periodically setting aside food for a time, could be just for a meal or maybe for a day or more than that, to seek God, to substitute that time when you would eat with extended time in prayer and in God’s word, just saying more than I want food oh God, I want you. And especially when we face certain things in our lives, challenges in our lives, for our first impulse to be, I need to fast. I need to set aside food and implore my God and know Ezra 8:23, that he will listen to our entreaty.
So God, we pray that you would teach us to fast just like your disciples asked you, Lord Jesus, to teach them to pray. We pray that you would teach us to fast, help us all to learn the importance of fasting and to experience the joy of fasting, of setting aside this basic daily necessity of food that you’ve wired us to want and need, to say more than we want or need food, we want or need you more than we want or need anything this world offers us. We want and need you. God, we pray that you would, both in our individual lives and in our churches, help us to fast together and as we do, to grow in our delight in you, in our feasting on you. And to be confident that you hear our entreaties when we fast.
Prayer for the Darzada People
Oh God, we fast for the spread of the Gospel to the nations like we see in Acts 13 as they’re fasting and you set apart solemn Barnabas to go where the Gospel hasn’t gone. God, more than we want food, we want your Word and your glory to spread to all the peoples of the world, to the Darzada people of Pakistan, almost 200,000 of them known followers of Jesus among this Balochi-speaking Muslim people group. Lord, we pray for the Darzada of Pakistan. God teach us to fast for the nations. And in addition to fasting for needs in our own lives and families and churches, make us a fasting people according to your word in Ezra 8:23. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
