2025 Lent Devotional – Day 31

Lent Devotional: Day 31
Results of fasting
Rev. J.N. Manokaran

Prophet Isaiah provides seven results of right fasting. (Isaiah 58: 8-11)

1. Light will go forth: It is an imperfect physical world and a dark spiritual world. There are many hindrances, obstacles, and bondages a disciple faces every day. Some are really difficult to break through. Yes, when believers humble themselves, fast, and pray they can experience breakthroughs in their lives. Light will shine in the darkness – suffering, pain, defeats, rejection, failures, inadequacies…etc. The end of the tunnel will be there in our journey of faith.
2. Healing: God will heal us. Fasting accelerates the speed of recovery. It is not just physical healing, but emotional and spiritual healing. The bones will become strong. More people are emotionally hurt today than ever before. Broken-hearted, a sense of abandonment, rejection, and isolation are modern mental problems that could be healed by the Word of God, received in humility and fasting.
3. Righteousness goes before you: Believers are children of light and are declared righteous. (Romans 5:1) Hence, they have a spiritual standing, that gives them access to His presence. Such disciples have their priorities right. Their priority will be the Kingdom and the value system would be the righteousness of God. (Matthew 6:33)
4. Jehovah will be the rear guard: A small child with his enthusiasm tries to lift all the stuff from the portico and walk back home. His father walks just behind the son without being noticed. Each article or toy dropped is delightfully picked up by the father. This is the picture of a disciple’s life who follows the discipline of fasting. (Isaiah 58:8) He is our rear guard and picks what we fail or drop and makes it perfect.
5. Answer to prayers: In the Old Testament, the Lord responds to prayer by saying: “Here I am.” God is eager to answer, he even demands and commands people of God to call unto Him. (Jeremiah 33:3) For the New Testament saints, he is Immanuel: God with us. (Matthew 1:23) With his overwhelming presence, all doubts, worries, fears and burdens disappear.
6. God will guide you continually: In the digital world, Google has become the guide for many. Sadly, such guidance end up in disaster, not only in the physical realm, in the spiritual realm also. God is a wonderful counselor. (Isaiah 9:6) Fasting helps a believer to orient or fine-tune to hear His voice. Those who are humble to heed, willing to obey, will hear a voice saying: “This is the way, walk in it, do not turn to left or right.” (Isaiah 30:21)
7. Satisfaction: The Lord will satisfy a believer’s godly and righteous desires, even in scorched or impossible places. Joy, peace, love, and hope are essential for a satisfied life. The Spirit of God provides such guarantees. The world could neither give contentment nor satisfaction. Their life will be like that of a watered garden, the water will never fail.