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If you have an appetite for rising up in business to the detriment of your
other duties, fast from it.
If you have an appetite for unclean thoughts or things fast from them.
If you have an appetite for things that waste time fast from them.
Fasting is abstaining from all of our appetites. Of course, the church directs all of us to
fast from food because everyone needs and likes food and therefore fasting from food is
an offering to God that everyone can give. But the intent of fasting is not just that we
should not eat certain kinds of food at certain times. The intent is that we will not sin.
Fasting strengthens us so that we will not sin. If you do not understand this then you have
not fasted enough. You will learn by experience that fasting helps us to not sin, but only
if this fasting is with effort and purpose and not according to convenience.
Prayer must accompany fasting. Of course the Apostle says that we should pray without
ceasing, we should ask God for everything in our lives and give him praise for everything
He has given us. We must believe in His providence and see His hand in everything that
happens to us. Everything should be done with prayer.
So one kind of belief is the following of the commandments, struggle, prayer, and fasting.
But the purpose of our lives is not prayer and fasting. Our purpose is not even prayer. In
the Gospel, the Lord tells us that there will come a time when we are not to pray.
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This is
when we are totally with God; when we are in such a state, we need not ask to be with
God! Those who have reached perfection and are gazing at the face of God need not ask
God to come, since He is already apprehended by the mind as fully present. We who have
not reached perfection must continually ask God to come, and in His coming, He will
prepare us. He is ready, but we are not, so we must be prepared to be before the face of
God and gaze at Him continually.
The second kind of belief is when one can gaze at the face of God, without shame or fear,
but with joy. And with that kind of belief, anything can be done. The Lord tells us that we
can move mountains, and exorcize demoniacs; absolutely nothing shall be impossible for
us.
We are somewhere in the continuum between the two kinds of belief and unbelief. Let it
not be said that we have no belief! If that is the case, then we are far from God. Take
note, it is possible for a person who considers himself to be a Christian to have no belief.
Let it be said that we believe, that we struggle to follow the commandments, and that we
beg the Lord to help our unbelief. And we know that in struggling to follow the
commandments God will help us. He will not abandon us. The good work which has
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"And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall
rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. (23) And in that day ye shall ask me
nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he
will give it you."
(John 16:22-23
)