{ Day 170 }

Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. —Matthew 9:15, NKJV

Have you ever felt that you just could not stand to go on living without more of Jesus Christ in your life? I have. It’s for such seasons of spiritual hunger that God has given us the Bridegroom fast. It is a fast that enlarges our capacity to receive freely from the Spirit of God. Instead of having an external purpose such as averting a crisis, this kind of fasting changes us on the inside. When you cannot live without something in God, some place of depth of communion in His love, then it is God’s will for you to cry out for it with a new resolve and intensity. If you absolutely cannot live without a new depth in your intimacy with God, the Lord will usually increase your portion of it over the following months and years.

{ PRAYER STARTER }

Lord, sometimes my heart is filled with intense longing for more of You. Sometimes I feel as though I cannot go on without a fresh revelation of Your love. Draw me into a new and higher level of intimacy with You.

We receive spiritual tenderness and new discoveries
of intimacy with God more quickly and more deeply
when we fast.