21 Days of Fasting and Prayer Devotional: Mountains Will Move!Sample

Day 3: Doing Battle

No matter what you are fasting, but especially if you are fasting food, day three tends to be difficult. It can seem like every reason to quit shows up in force. But it’s important to remember that the reason fasting is a battle is because we are doing battle. Prayer and fasting accelerates God’s victory in our lives as we take the fight out of the realm of pure physicality and bring it squarely into the space where it is actually won—the spiritual realm.

All of us will have battles in our lives, but the question is, how will we respond to these battles? In 2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat was confronted with a “vast army” that had the power to devastate his nation. Many would have assumed his problem was purely physical—it seemed like an issue of military might, battle plans, state-of-the-art weaponry, number of troops, and strategic leadership. But Jehoshaphat correctly concluded the conflict was spiritual.

So, what did he do? He called the people to fast and pray, and notice how God responded, “Do not be afraid or discouraged by this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15). Whatever you are facing, we serve a God who wants to fight our battles!

Fasting may feel hard today, but with every hunger pang you feel, be reminded not only that you are doing battle, but as you fast, God is bringing the victory!