The Prepared Heart
The Lord greatly values a prepared heart; but many miss how to achieve it.
It’s a matter of understanding:
Fasting brings humility; through humility, the Lord prepares the heart.
2Chronicles 12:13-14 So king Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem, and reigned: for Rehoboam was one and forty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah an Ammonitess. And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD.
Ezra 7:9-10 KJV For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.
Let the Lord prepare your heart:
Psalm 10:17 LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
Humility is acquired through fasting:
Psalm 35:13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.
Fasting is the physical act of abstaining from food or water:
Strongs #6685: AHLB#: 1404-J
1404) My% (My% TsM) ac: Thirst co: Dry ab: ?: The pictograph y is a picture of a man on his side representing the hunt, the m is a picture of water. Combined these mean “hunt for water”. A fasting from water, or food.
J) Mfy% (Mfy% TsWM) ac: Fast co: ? ab: ?: An abstinence from water, or food.
Nm) Mfy% (Mfy% TsWM) – Fast: An abstinence from food. [freq. 26] |kjv: fast| str: 6685