Fasting and praying the Lord’s Prayer

Posted on by Dave

I was reading the early church fathers recently and I saw two interesting things.

  1. They told followers of Jesus to fast twice a week.
  2. They told followers to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day.

I fast occasionally when I feel I have something on my heart to bring before the Lord. But I do not fast twice per week.

I do pray the Lord’s Prayer several times per day. It has become my practice over the last six months. Especially since I have been using prayer beads.

I do wonder how my life would change if I followed the prescription of the early church fathers and fasted and prayed as they suggested? How would your life change?

Prayer and Fasting

Do not have your fasts with the hypocrites. For they fast on Mondays and Thursdays; but you should fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. Neither are you to pray as the hypocrites, but as the Lord commanded in his gospel, “Pray in this way: Our Father who is in heaven, may your name be holy, may your kingdom come, may your will be done as in heaven, so also upon earth; give to us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debt as also we forgive our debtors, and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one, because yours is the power and the glory forever.” Pray this way three times a day.

Brannan, R. (tran.) (2012) The Apostolic Fathers in English. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.