“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Joel 2:12
“Prayer connects us to God and fasting disconnects us from the world. There are levels in God we can’t reach if we are not both disconnected from the world and connected to God. Fasting, together with prayer, helps us do that. Joel 2:12 says, “Now, therefore,” says the LORD, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” Fasting accompanies turning to God and realigns our connection with Him. If you want to strengthen your prayer life, add fasting to it. Fasting without prayer, while not pointless, will not yield the power that God would have us access. The purpose of fasting is to strengthen prayer. We disconnect from the world so that we can connect more deeply with God.”
Vladimir Savchuk in A Beginner’s Guide to Fasting: Simple, Practical, Biblical (Pasco, WA: 2024) 14-15.
Notice the blessing this new “friend” brings to prayer. It helps us disconnect from everything around as we attempt to connect with God in prayer.
Think about this implications of that with any other aspect of life, like having a meeting with a person.
What do we do? We mark our calendar. That disconnects us from everything else at that moment, and then we connect with this person. We might travel to meet them or do it using technology. So what is the point.
Can we really connect with a person if we don’t disconnect from everything else.
In such a meeting, that person would be distracted, not fully present, and unable to connect. That might be why so many people find themselves not in a vibrant relationship with God.
How can we live, give, serve, and love generously from such a posture. We cannot.
This explains partly why GTP convenes the world for the Global Gathering and includes fasting on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. We do it to connect with God and disconnect from the world.
It has reaped profound blessing and benefits. Stay tuned to learn more. Consider your own fasting.
In the meantime, fast for me.