Fasting and prayer

1559 · John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 4.12.16

In this sense is to be understood the saying of Luke concerning Anna, that she “served God with fastings and prayers, night and day” (Luke 2:37). For he does not place the worship of God in fasting, but intimates that in this way the holy woman trained herself to assiduity in prayer. Such was the fast of Nehemiah, when with more intense zeal he prayed to God for the deliverance of his people (Neh. 1:4). For this reason Paul says, that married believers do well to abstain for a season (1 Cor. 7:5), that they may have greater freedom for prayer and fasting, when by joining prayer to fasting, by way of help, he reminds us it is of no importance in itself, save in so far as it refers to this end.

1563 · John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah, part 2 (chapters 10-19) 14.12

We pray to God daily, it may be said, and yet we do not fast daily. It is indeed true that prayer is more intent when we fast; but yet God requires not daily fastings, while he enjoins prayer both in the morning and in the evening, yea, he would have us to implore his grace continually. (1 Thessalonians 5:17) But when fasting is joined to prayer, then prayer becomes more earnest; as it is usually the case when there is any danger, or when there appears any evidence of God’s wrath, or when we labor under any heavy affliction; for we then not only pray but we also fast that we may be more free and more at liberty to pray. Besides, fasting is also an evidence that we are deprecating the wrath of God, while we confess that we are guilty before him; and thus also they who pray stimulate themselves the more to sorrow and to other penitential feelings.

1650 · Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living 4.5.2

In imitation of this custom, and in prosecution of the reason of it, the Christian church hath religiously observed fasting, before the holy communion; and the more devout persons (though without any obligation at all) refused to eat or drink till they had finished their morning devotions: and further yet, upon days of public humiliation, which are designed to be spent wholly in devotion, and for the averting God’s judgments, (if they were imminent,) fasting is commanded together with prayer: commanded (I say) by the church to this end — that the spirit might be clearer and more angelical, when it is quitted in some proportions from the loads of flesh. 2. Fasting, when it is in order to prayer, must be a total abstinence from all meat, or else an abatement of the quantity; for the help which fasting does to prayer cannot be served by changing flesh into fish, or milk-meats into dry diet; but by turning much into little, or little into none at all, during the time of solemn and extraordinary prayer.

1650 · Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living 4.5.2

Fasting, as it is instrumental to prayer, must be attended with other aids of the like virtue and efficacy; such as are removing for the time all worldly cares and secular business; and therefore our blessed Saviour enfolds these parts within the same caution, ‘take heed, lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this world, and that day overtake you unawares.’ To which add alms; for upon the wings of fasting and alms holy prayer infallibly mounts up to heaven.

1650 · Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living 4.5.3

He that undertakes to enumerate the benefits of fasting may, in the next page, also reckon all the benefits of physic, for fasting is not to be commended as a duty, but as an instrument; and in that sense no man can reprove it, or undervalue it, but he that knows neither spiritual arts nor spiritual necessities. But by the doctors of the church it is called the nourishment of prayer, the restraint of lust, the wings of the soul, the diet of angels, the instrument of humility and self-denial, the purification of the spirit; and the paleness and meagerness of visage, which is consequent to the daily fast of great mortifiers, is, by St. Basil, said to be the mark in the forehead which the angel observed when he signed the saints in the forehead to escape the wrath of God.

1823 · Robert South, Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, Volume 2 20

Prayer is a kind of wrestling with God; and he who would win the prize at that exercise, must be severely dieted for that purpose. The truth is, fasting was ever acknowledged by the church, in all ages, as a singular instrument of religion, and a particular preparative to the sacrament. And hardly was there ever any thing great or heroic either done or attempted in religion without it. Thus, when Moses received the law from God, it was with fasting, Deut. ix. 9. When Christ entered upon the great office of his mediatorship, it was with fasting, Matt. iv. 2. And when Paul and Barnabas were separated to that high and difficult charge of preaching to the gentiles, Acts xiii. 2. still it was managed with fasting.

1864 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 10 (1864) 549

Martin Luther, whose body, like some others, was of a gross tendency, felt as some of us do, that in our flesh dwelleth no good thing, in another sense than the apostle meant it; and he used to fast frequently. He says his flesh was wont to grumble dreadfully at abstinence, but fast he would, for he found that when he was fasting, it quickened his praying. There is a treatise by an old Puritan, called, “The soul fattening institution of fasting,” and he gives us his own experience that during a fast he has felt more intense eagerness of soul in prayer than he had ever done at any other time.

1885–1895 · Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer 13

The body has been redeemed to be a temple of the Holy Spirit; it is in body as well as spirit, it is very specially, Scripture says, in eating and drinking, we are to glorify God. It is to be feared that there are many Christians to whom this eating to the glory of God has not yet become a spiritual reality. And the first thought suggested by Jesus’ words in regard to fasting and prayer, is, that it is only in a life of moderation and temperance and self-denial that there will be the heart or the strength to pray much.

1896 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 42 (1896) 2454

I can advise Brothers and Sisters, sometimes, to try it—it will be good for their health and it certainly will not harm them. If we only ate about half what is ordinarily eaten, we would probably, all of us, be in better health! And if, occasionally, we put ourselves on short commons, not because there is any virtue in that, but in order to get our brains more clear, and to help our hearts to rest more fully upon the Savior, we would find that prayer and fasting have great power.

1897 · John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ Part II

If you greedily eat and drink much, then you will be flesh; whilst if you fast and pray, then you will be spirit. "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." Fast and pray, and you shall accomplish great things. The satiated man is incapable of great works. Have simplicity of faith, and you shall accomplish great things; " for all things are possible to him that believeth." Be watchful and zealous, and you shall do great things.

1918 · Abraham Kuyper, To Be Near Unto God 54. Give Yourself to Fasting and Prayer

Isaiah 58 and I Cor. 7:5 show that fasting, in the spiritual sense, has a much broader basis than a temporary abstinence from food. It aims to put an end to the dominion of the body over the soul, and to restore the soul's dominion over the body. You know yourself that everything that feeds and pleases the body has a tendency to repress the clearness and elasticity of the life of the soul. The side of our life that is turned toward the world rarely operates in harmony with the side of our life that is turned toward God. When you are alone you feel as a rule closer to God than when you are in company. In the banqueting hall you are farther away from God than in your bedchamber. In the midst of the cares to increase your wealth you enjoy less of God's presence than at the times when you give of your money to the poor. You are closer to God when you feed the hungry than when, with your family or guests, you feast on choice foods and drinks. In brief, experience confirms again and again, that the less enjoyment you take in the world, the more intimate is your thought of God. The more you get apart from the cares and the joys of the world, the closer becomes your walk with God.

c. 392–422 · Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms (Enarrationes in Psalmos) 43.7

How speedily are the prayers of those received, who work righteousness! And this is man’s righteousness in this life, fasting, alms, and prayer. Wouldest thou have thy prayer fly upward to God? Make for it those two wings of alms and fasting.

440–461 · Leo the Great, Sermons (Tractatus) 12.4

But there are three things which most belong to religious actions, namely prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, in the exercising of which while every time is accepted, yet that ought to be more zealously observed, which we have received as hallowed by tradition from the apostles: even as this tenth month brings round again to us the opportunity when according to the ancient practice we may give more diligent heed to those three things of which I have spoken. For by prayer we seek to propitiate God, by fasting we extinguish the lusts of the flesh, by alms we redeem our sins: and at the same time God’s image is throughout renewed in us, if we are always ready to praise Him, unfailingly intent on our purification and unceasingly active in cherishing our neighbour. This threefold round of duty, dearly beloved, brings all other virtues into action: it attains to God’s image and likeness and unites us inseparably with the Holy Spirit. Because in prayer faith remains stedfast, in fastings life remains innocent, in almsgiving the mind remains kind.

c. 1611 · Lewis Bayly, The Practice of Piety 13

Secondly, That we may more devoutly contemplate God’s holy will, and fervently pour forth our souls to him by prayer (Joel ii. 17; Luke ii. 37; 1 Cor. vii. 5.) For as there are some kind of devils, so there are also some kind of sins, which cannot be subdued but by fasting, joined to prayer (Matt. xvii. 21.) Thirdly, That by our serious humiliation, and judging of ourselves, we may escape the judgment of the Lord (Joel ii. 18, 19; 1 Cor. xi.;) not for the merit of our fasting (which is none), but for the mercy of God, who has promised to remove his judgments from us, when we by fasting unfeignedly humble ourselves before him. And indeed no child of God ever conscionably used this holy exercise, but in the end he obtained his request at the hand of God; both in receiving graces which he wanted, as appears in the examples of Hannah, Jehoshaphat, Nehemiah, Daniel, Esther (1 Sam. i. 7; 2 Chron. xx.; Neh. i.; Dan. ix.; Esth. iv.;) as also in turning away judgments threatened, or fallen upon him, as may be seen in the examples of the Israelites, the Ninevites, Rehoboam, Ahab, Hezekiah, Mannasseh (1 Sam. vii. 6; Jonah iii.; 2 Chron. xii. 5, 7, &c.; 1 Kings xxi.; 2 Chron. xxxii.; xxxiii. 18, 19.)

1655–1662 · William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour Part 12. DIRECTION XI.—SECOND GENERAL PART. [How to perform the duty commanded—a

When the Christian is buffeted with any temptation, or overpowered with a corruption, and cannot, with the use of ordinary means, quench the one or master and mortify the other. If the short dagger of ordinary prayer will not reach the heart of a lust, then it is time to draw out this long sword of extraordinary prayer upon it. There is a ‘kind’ of devils, our Saviour tells us, that ‘goes not out but by prayer and fasting,’ Matt. 17:21. You know the occasion of this speech was that complaint of one concerning his lunatic son, ‘I brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him.’ Thus some poor souls complain they have come to the word preached so long, in their daily prayers begged power over such a lust, resolved against it many a time, and none of these means could cure it; what can they now do more? Here thou art told. Bring thy condition to Christ in this solemn ordinance of prayer and fasting; this hath at last been the happy means to strengthen many a poor Christian to be avenged on those spiritual enemies which have outbraved all the former, and like Samson to pull down the devil’s house upon his head.

1726 · William Law, A Practical Treatise upon Christian Perfection 7

If we were to fast without praying, would not this be a way of worship of our own invention? And if we pray, and neglect fasting, is it not equally choosing a worship of our own? For he that has taught us the use and advantage of prayer, has, in the same words, taught us the same things of fasting, and has also joined them together, as having the same power with God. If, therefore, Justus will take his religion from Scripture, he must own, that fasting is of the nature of prayer, that it has the same authority from Christ, and that he who only fasts on a public day or two in a year, no more observes the whole duty of Christian fasting than he who only attends some public yearly days of prayer, can be said to fulfil the whole duty of Christian devotion.

1754 · John Wesley, Explanatory Notes on Matthew 17.21

This kind of devils - goeth not out but by prayer and fasting - What a testimony is here of the efficacy of fasting, when added to fervent prayer! Some kinds of devils the apostles had cast out before this, without fasting.

1823 · Robert South, Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, Volume 6 34

And in the management of so great a duty, to be silent and obstinate, to have no petition to prefer, what is it but to transact the whole religion of the fast with our teeth? With a temper inferior to the ox and the brute animals, who low in their hunger, and speak aloud their wants to the hand that feeds them. Nay, the very reason of a fast seems to require the society of prayer, for it must needs be undertook either for the procuring of some good, or the deprecation of some evil: and is there any way appointed either by God or nature, to represent the wants and grievances of our condition to heaven but by petition? by the solicitations of prayer, a duty whose strange and never-failing successes in all its holy contests with the Almighty have rendered it not only acceptable, but also invincible?

1858 · Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 1: Apostolic Christianity, A.D. 1-100 9.53

On solemn occasions they joined fasting with prayer, as a help to devotion, though it is nowhere directly enjoined in the New Testament. They prayed freely from the heart, as they were moved by the Spirit, according to special needs and circumstances. We have an example in the fourth chapter of Acts. There is no trace of a uniform and exclusive liturgy; it would be inconsistent with the vitality and liberty of the apostolic churches. At the same time the frequent use of psalms and short forms of devotion, as the Lord’s Prayer, may be inferred with certainty from the Jewish custom, from the Lord’s direction respecting his model prayer, from the strong sense of fellowship among the first Christians, and finally from the liturgical spirit of the ancient church, which could not have so generally prevailed both in the East and the West without some apostolic and post-apostolic precedent.

1860–1870 · An earlier commentator, quoted by Edward Bouverie Pusey, Notes on the Bible: Joel 2.12

And with fasting - o: "In their returning to Him, it is required in the first place, that it be with the heart in the inward man, yet so that the outward man is not left unconcerned, but hath his part also, in performance of such things whereby he may express, how the inward man is really affected; and so by the concurrence of both is true conversion made up. "With fasting," which shall make for the humbling of the heart, which pampering of the flesh is apt to puff up and make insensible of its own condition, and forgetful of God and His service, as Jeshurun who, being "waxed fat, kicked, and forsook the God which made him and lightly esteemed the God of his salvation" Deu 32:15. To waiting then on God's service and prayer, it is usually joined in Scripture, as almost a necessary accompaniment, called for by God, and by holy men practiced."

1871 · David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on Mark 9.29

See on Mr 11:23. "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Mt 17:21), that is, though nothing is impossible to faith, yet such a height of faith as is requisite for such triumphs is not to be reached either in a moment or without effort—either with God in prayer or with ourselves in self-denying exercises.