40-Day Corporate Prayer and Fasting

Is Obedience Better than Fasting?: The phrase “obedience is better than fasting”  means that simply following God's commands and living a life aligned with His will is more valuable than just performing outward acts of religious devotion like fasting, even if done with good intentions, because true faith is demonstrated through consistent obedience in everyday life rather than just occasional acts of self-denial; this idea is primarily drawn from the book of Zechariah in the Bible where God criticizes the Israelites for fasting while neglecting to follow His laws. Fasting from physical food works in tandem with feasting on the words of life. So, when you fast, you’re not merely denying yourself. You should be replacing a good gift from God that you regularly enjoy (food) with time with God himself. The Bible is God’s way of speaking to you. “Now in the fourth year of King Darius it came to pass that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, Chislev, when the people sent Sherezer, with Regem-Melech and his men, to the house of God, to pray before the Lord, and to ask the priests who were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so many years?” Zechariah 7:1–3 (NKJV).

This concept is most explicitly stated in the book of Zechariah, where God says through the prophet that the people were fasting but not truly obeying His laws, essentially rendering their fasting meaningless. The idea is that true worship and devotion to God should be reflected in daily actions and choices, not just in occasional practices like fasting, which could be done without a sincere change of heart. This means that while fasting can be a valuable spiritual practice, it should be accompanied by a genuine commitment to live according to God's commands in all aspects of life. Fasting does not bring about outward obedience, but fasting is part of obedience in the lives of those who are living out the will of God publicly. The evidence of drawing closer to God is visibly seen in how people live among others in the world. “Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, “Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—for Me? When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? Should you not have obeyed the words which the Lord proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous, and the South and the Lowland were inhabited? ” ”   Zechariah 7:4–7 (NKJV).