Jejum e oração
Jejum e oração são disciplinas espirituais que andam juntas. Jesus jejuou, os apóstolos jejuaram, e a Bíblia ensina que o jejum fortalece a oração e nos aproxima do coração de Deus.
O exemplo de Jesus
Jesus jejuou quarenta dias no deserto antes de iniciar seu ministério. Ele ensinou que certas coisas só acontecem com oração e jejum.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."
"And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
"And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.
O jejum nas Escrituras
Ao longo da Bíblia, grandes homens e mulheres de fé jejuaram em momentos decisivos — buscando a Deus com urgência e devoção.
So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks.
I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks.
"Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish."
As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods.
So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.
So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.
David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.
And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish."
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
O jejum que Deus escolheu
Isaías revela o jejum que agrada a Deus: soltar as cadeias da injustiça, libertar os oprimidos e repartir o pão com o faminto.
‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,
and oppress all your workers.
Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high.
Is such the fast that I choose,
a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to the Lord?
"Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
"Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
"Yet even now," declares the Lord,
"return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
"Yet even now," declares the Lord,
"return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
Consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
A igreja primitiva
Os apóstolos jejuavam antes de decisões importantes. O jejum acompanhava a consagração de líderes e o envio de missionários.
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
Praticando o jejum
Quando jejuares, unge a cabeça e lava o rosto. O jejum é entre você e Deus — não para impressionar os homens, mas para buscar ao Senhor.
and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.
And they said to him, "The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink." And Jesus said to them, "Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days."
And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer."
And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer."
in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
But I, when they were sick—
I wore sackcloth;
I afflicted myself with fasting;
I prayed with head bowed on my chest.