Day 75 – Breakthrough

Esther 4:15-16

Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

 I felt so hungry! I hadn’t eaten in days. But I’d never been so close to God and knew that he was hearing my heart cry to him! This was a time in my life when I fasted, seeking a breakthrough and God answered!

 Today we look at our third way in Esther 4 that the people of God respond in a time of crisis. The Jewish people were at risk of annihilation, of ethnic cleansing. But how did they respond? They fasted.

 Before Queen Esther executed her sophisticated response to King Xerxes terrible law, she called the whole Jewish people to fast for three days. 

 Fasting is the spiritual discipline I find most challenging. It’s for a very simple reason: I love food! Yet, fasting is consistently and repetitively the response of God’s people to crisis throughout the Scriptures. Jesus taught, not ‘if you fast’, but ‘when you fast’ (Matt. 6:16), telling us that it is the normative experience in following Christ. It’s an act of self-denial, a means of worship, repentance and sanctification. It’s spiritual warfare. It’s an act of dependency on God, crying out to him to change our situation!

I’ve seen the greatest breakthroughs in prayer in sustained time of fasting. So did Esther and the Jewish people. God changed around their situation. 

Reflect – What situations do you want God to change? When are you next going to fast?

Tim Bateman
Gas Street Leadership Team