Does Fasting Give Us Rewards from God?

Frequently, my counseling and coaching with Christians (even leaders) rest on the reality that they did something "for God," and they expect God to return, in kind, that which they desire because of what was done in the name of the Lord. Naturally, but with a lack of rousing popularity, my response is, "But what did the Lord tell you to do?"

To answer whether we can expect rewards from God when we fast is predicated on what word God gave you. Remember, in Episode 1; we say that you will likely have a difficult, unsuccessful fast if your why is more about an outcome than obedience. If you are fasting because something happened and you "want" God to do something, here's my advice: Have faith. But manage your expectations. 

God rewards obedience. If God tells you to fast, you can expect God to respond. So yes, there are rewards in fasting. At the same time, if you fast in faith, the reward will be proximity to the Lord, but if it's attached to a particular expectation derived from you, you might be setting yourself up for disappointment. If you fast for your child's life as David did in 2 Samuel 12, you and David might experience the same result. Remember, hundreds of years after 2 Samuel was written, David was still called a man after God's heart (Acts 13:22). That's significant because even after fasting and David not getting what he wanted from the Lord, David still knew that God was able to do immeasurably more (Eph 3:20).