Prayer and Fasting- Part 1

 Prayer and Fasting - 1

January 5, 2026

Isaiah 58:3-4 (NKJV) 

3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ [they say,] ‘and You have not seen? [Why] have we afflicted oursouls, and You take no notice?’ “In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers. 4 Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as [you do] this day, To make your voice heard on high.

Matthew 6:16-18 (NKJV) 

16 “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I sayto you, they have their reward. 17 “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 “so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who [is] in the secret [place;] and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

The beginning of the new year is a good time to reflect on your life and spent time in prayer and fasting preparing for the coming year. This week, we will look at some scriptures on prayer and fasting. For today, let us examine what fasting is not.

Isaiah starts his prophecy and teaching in chapter 58 with a rebuke from the Lord about how the people were fasting. They were complaining that the Lord wasn’t noticing their prayers when they afflicted themselves and fasted. The Lord answers them and says that He was not answering their prayers because of their attitude and behavior. The people were making a big show of their prayer and fasting, but they weren’t changing their behavior. They were still arguing with one another, perhaps with a “holier than thou” attitude, and they were continuing to mistreat their fellow workers. They were expecting the Lord to hear their prayers but were doing nothing to help their neighbors.

Likewise,  Jesus taught in Matthew 6 that we should not fast like the hypocrites. The scribes and Pharisees of his day loved to put on a show of great piety, looking sad and crying out loudly in public, but Jesus instructs us to pray quietly and keep up a normal appearance so as not to call attention to ourselves. Fasting is not about trying to make the Lord hear our prayers, but in changing our heart so that we can hear His voice. The Lord will hear our prayers without us flogging ourselves in public and making a spectacle of our prayers. There are many religious people in our day who love to make loud sounds and disrupt public life with their displays of praying, some 5 times a day. Jesus says this is not to be the way that we pray and that such displays don’t help our chances that the Lord will hear our prayers. Jesus even says that the public attention is the only reward they will get for their loud efforts.

Tomorrow, we will continue and talk more about the purpose and goal of fasting and seek to find out how it is that we should pray and fast in order to please the Lord.