Some History

First, let me survey some of the history of days of fasting and prayer. These days have been in the church of Christ since the ancient church. In our Reformed tradition one reads of the Reformed churches in Switzerland (e.g., Ecclesiastical Ordinances of Geneva), the Netherlands, France, and England (see below) engaging in these services often, whether in times of great blessing or curse. One testimony of this in the tradition in which I minister, the Dutch Reformed tradition, is the prayer, “A General Confession of Sins, and Prayer Before the Sermon and on Days of Fasting and Prayer” (Psalter Hymnal, p. 181). This prayer was an application of articles 66–67 of the Church Order of the Synod of Dort, which said,

In times of war, pestilence, calamities, heavy persecution of the Churches, and other general distresses, the Ministers of the Churches shall request the Government to employ their authority and command that public days of Fasting and Prayer be appointed and set aside (art. 66).

The Churches shall observe, in addition to Sunday, also Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, with the following day, and whereas in most of the cities and provinces of the Netherlands the day of Circumcision and of Ascension of Christ are also observed, Ministers in every place where this is not yet done shall take steps with the Government to have them conform with the others (art. 67).

In our context now, days of prayer are traditionally held on the second Wednesday of March in relation to crops or on the National Day of Prayer (first Thursday in May).

Teaching in the Confessions

The Reformed Confessions also approve of such services and give us prescriptive details about them. In the Second Helvetic Confession, published by Heinrich Bullinger in 1566, he contrasted living a life of drunkenness with fasting:

For fasting is nothing else than the abstinence and temperance of the godly, and a watching and chastising of our flesh, taken up for present necessity, whereby we are humbled before God, and withdraw from the flesh those things with which it is cherished, to the end that it may the more willingly and easily obey the Spirit. Wherefore they do not fast at all that have no regard for those things, but imagine that they fast if they stuff their bellies once a day, and for a set or prescribed time do abstain from certain meats, thinking that by this very work wrought: they please God and acquire merit. Fasting is a help of the prayers of the saints and all virtues; but the fasts wherein the Jews fasted from meat, and not from wickedness, pleased God nothing at all, as we may see in the books of the Prophets.

Fasting, according to Bullinger, is an abstaining of the body with the goal of serving the Spirit. Bullinger then went on to distinguish public and private fasts and the need for both:

Now, fasting is either public or private. In olden times they celebrated public fasts in troublesome times and in the afflictions of the Church; wherein they abstained altogether from meat till the evening, and bestowed all that time in holy prayers, the worship of God, and repentance. These differed little from mournings and lamentations; and of these there is often mention made in the Prophets, and especially in the 2d chapter of Joel. Such a fast should be kept at this day, when the Church is in distress. Private fasts are used by every one of us, according as every one feels the spirit weakened in him; for so he withdraws that which might cherish and strengthen the flesh.

Bullinger applied what happened in ancient days to his own, saying that not only did the people of God “celebrate public fasts” in “olden times” during times of trouble, but “at this day” such fasts “should be kept” by us. Finally, Bullinger characterized the attitude of true Christian fasting in these words:

All fasts ought to proceed from a free and willing spirit, and such a one as is truly humbled, and not framed to win applause and the liking of men, much less to the end that a man might merit righteousness by them. But let every one fast to this end, that he may deprive the flesh of that which would cherish it, and that he may the more zealously serve God.

Fasting is not divine or ecclesiastical law, but the free and willing service of the Christian “that he may the more zealously serve God.”

Later, James Ussher wrote the Irish Articles of Religion in 1615 to express the Puritan faith in Ireland. Three of the 104 articles deal with fasting. Article 49 deals with the context for such days of fasting, humiliation, and prayer:

When almighty God smiteth us with affliction, or some great calamity hangeth over us, or any other weighty cause so requireth, it is our duty to humble ourselves in fasting, to bewail our sins with a sorrowful heart, and to addict ourselves to earnest prayer, that it might please God to turn his wrath from us, or supply us with such graces as we greatly stand in need of.

Ussher went on to describe fasting as “a withholding of meat, drink, and all natural food, with other outward delights, from the body, for the determined time of fasting” (art. 50). He went on to describe the inner aspect of fasting:

We must not fast with this persuasion of mind, that our fasting can bring us to heaven, or ascribe holiness to the outward work wrought; for God alloweth not our fast for the work sake (which of itself is a thing merely indifferent), but simply respecteth the heart, how it is affected therein. It is, therefore, requisite that first, before all things, we cleanse our hearts from sin, and then direct our fast to such ends as God will allow to be good: that the flesh may thereby be chastised, the spirit may be more fervent in prayer, and that our fasting may be a testimony of our humble submission to God’s majesty, when we acknowledge our sins unto him, and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness of heart, bewailing the same in the affliction of our bodies.

In continuity with Bullinger, Ussher saw fasting as an outward means whereby the soul was made more malleable to the work of the Spirit.

Following Ussher very closely, the Westminster Confession spoke briefly of fasting in the context of public worship:

The reading of the Scriptures with godly fear, the sound preaching and conscionable hearing of the Word, in obedience unto God, with understanding, faith, and reverence, singing of psalms with grace in the heart; as also, the due administration and worthy receiving of the sacraments instituted by Christ, are all parts of the ordinary religious worship of God: beside religious oaths, vows, solemn fastings, and thanksgivings upon special occasions, which are, in their several times and seasons, to be used in an holy and religious manner (21.5; emphasis added).

In the Larger Catechism this is put more strikingly: “What are the duties required in the second commandment? The duties required in the second commandment are . . . religious fasting” (Q&A 108).

In the Assembly’s Directory for the Publick Worship of God, an entire section was taken up with “Publick Solemn Fasting.” The context is either a time of trouble or a time of seeking God’s blessing:

When some great and notable judgments are either inflicted upon a people, or apparently imminent, or by some extraordinary provocations notoriously deserved; as also when some special blessing is to be sought and obtained, publick solemn fasting (which is to continue the whole day) is a duty that God expecteth from that nation or people.

Before the service members prepared privately and were to assemble “early at the congregation.” A “large a portion of the day as conveniently may be” was taken up in “publick reading and preaching of the word, with singing of psalms, fit to quicken affections suitable to such a duty: but especially in prayer.” The Divines went on to give an outline of prayer:

Giving glory to the great Majesty of God, the Creator, Preserver, and supreme Ruler of all the world, the better to affect us thereby with an holy reverence and awe of him; acknowledging his manifold, great, and tender mercies, especially to the church and nation, the more effectually to soften and abase our hearts before him; humbly confessing of sins of all sorts, with their several aggravations; justifying God’s righteous judgments, as being far less than our sins do deserve; yet humbly and earnestly imploring his mercy and grace for ourselves, the church and nation, for our king, and all in authority, and for all others for whom we are bound to pray, (according as the present exigent requireth,) with more special importunity and enlargement than at other times; applying by faith the promises and goodness of God for pardon, help, and deliverance from the evils felt, feared, or deserved; and for obtaining the blessings which we need and expect; together with a giving up of ourselves wholly and for ever unto the Lord.

In prayer, ministers were “to speak from their hearts” so that both they and the people would be “much affected, and even melted thereby, especially with sorrow for their sins; that it may be indeed a day of deep humiliation and afflicting of the soul.”

Preaching texts were to be chosen based on what “may best work the hearts of the hearers to the special business of the day, and most dispose them to humiliation and repentance.”

Today’s Need

1. By instituting days of fasting and prayer today, we will be continually bringing our worship and life under the teaching of Scripture as it has been applied throughout church history.

2. By instituting days of fasting and prayer, we will be reminded of the greatness of our sins and misery in a public way and to be reminded of the necessity of true repentance and seeking the Lord.

3. By instituting days of fasting and prayer, we will publicly and corporately lift up the special needs of our congregations before the Lord. We need to dedicate ourselves to praying for the church’s inward condition and outward focus. Inwardly, we need to plead for our particular congregational needs, to plead for the wayward in our midst, to plead for our marriages, to plead for our children, to plead for godliness, and to plead for the preaching to be powerful. Outwardly we need to plead for passion in effectively witnessing, for the gospel to bear much fruit through us, and to see our congregations grow year by year.

The Impediments

What are some common impediments to holding services of fasting and prayer? Here are a few as I conclude:

1. No doubt the main culprit is our own spiritual laziness. As John Calvin said in his lectures on Joel 2:

. . . this practice has not been abolished by the gospel. And it hence appears how much we have departed from the right and lawful order of things; for at this day it would be new and unusual to proclaim a fast. How so? Because the greater part are become hardened; and as they know not commonly what repentance is, so they understand not what the profession of repentance means; for they understand not what sin is, what the wrath of God is, what grace is. It is then no wonder that they are so secure, and that when praying for pardon is mentioned, it is a thing wholly unknown at this day. But though people in general are thus stupid, it is yet our duty to learn from the Prophets what has always been the actual mode of proceeding among the people of God, and to labor as much as we can, that this may be known, so that when there shall come an occasion for a public repentance, even the most ignorant may understand that this practice has ever prevailed in the Church of God, and that it did not prevail through inconsiderate zeal of men, but through the will of God himself (Calvin, Commentaries on Joel, 14:45).

2. Another culprit are our overly scheduled and busy lives. Sadly, we are too busy to pray.

3. Finally, we are ignorant that one of the ordinary biblical means of seeking the Lord’s blessing is through public congregational fasting and prayers of penitence and thanksgiving.

Brothers and sisters, our light is getting dimmer and our saltiness is losing its savor. Let us seek the Lord through fasting and prayer in congregational services.