No Food Or Drink For Three Days And Nights

Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.” So Mordecai went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him. [Esther 4.15-17]

Herein lies a secret to walking in the knowledge and power of God: a three-day complete fast of food and drink.

That's it.

Until death is on the line, most Christians will never experience such a fast. And sadly, even in the face of death, most Christians don't have enough self-control to fast food and drink three days.

Ironically, the one thing missing in the variety of "selfisms" today is self-control. Imagine that.

Oh, to be sure, there are numerous and reasonable justifications why people today cannot fast food and drink for three days. People have debts and insurance premiums to pay. People cannot slow down long enough to endure the weakness of hunger and thirst without affecting their schedule and/or their medications that require food. People cannot detach themselves from the gadgetry of the world long enough to have quiet time with God. Not ironically, the idols of debt, insurance, medicine and technology largely influence our inability to fast food and drink for three days. People's service to these idols prevents the "super-focus" that fasting food and drink for three days provides and consequently, God's people wander through life like lost sheep.

Should we wonder why we struggle so when it comes to God's manifest power? Jesus' disciples encountered a situation that gave them trouble:

And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” [Matthew 17.14-21 NKJV]

It would appear that faith has at least some dependency upon prayer and fasting. Some miracles come without prayer and fasting, but not all miracles come without prayer and fasting!

With Esther's specific focus (three days and nights - no food or drink) and Jesus' general focus on prayer and fasting, should we wonder when our faith doesn't work or, instead, get to fasting? Fasting is the Biblical answer. Every other answer most likely has some form of "self" attached to it.

Father, as society continues to deteriorate around us, may we be found people of such focus - people of such faith - that three days and nights without food or drink are commonplace. May we find the will to suppress our "self focus" in exchange for absolute focus on You in complete Biblical fasting.