How should I pray when I'm fasting? Day 2

Our  first night of prayer during the fast was wonderfully poignant. There are few things as powerful as public confession, when people are sincere and specific. God's conviction and forgiveness were tangible. God wants to leave His indelible fingerprint on our lives.

Fasting is less painful with meaningful prayer. Prayer that deepens in intensity and connection to God is what makes a fast worthwhile. First it helps to know how to pray and what to pray.

Again Jesus' teaching on fasting and prayer in Matthew 6 is so helpful.

He calls us to a posture of confidence. "Your Father in heaven already knows what you need before you pray." Jesus goes on to tell the parable of the person who woke up his neighbor in the middle  of the night for some bread. "His neighbor will get up and give him bread because of his impudence." I love that word. It means persistent audacity. Jesus encourages us to bother God with impudence.

Another posture is reverence. He is our Father, but He is holy, He is in heaven and he has a heavenly  will that often runs counter to my earthly will. Prayer is not a menu where God the waiter takes our order. It is the place in which I align my will with His and begin to pray for that. This is how His kingdom comes. These are helpful postures in prayer.

But what about he nature of prayer? What do I pray? Jesus' teaching here is a most helpful framework. I break it onto 6 simple directions that help me to pray more specifically.
a. Adoration "Our Father who lives in heaven, Holy is your name." I worship God for His character, thank Him for the gift of the Gospel and His Spirit.
b. Submission "Your kingdom come Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." I bring my will to Him, and ask Him to show me where His will is counter to my will. This can be a wrestle!
c. Supplication "Give us this day our daily bread."I ask for His provision of faith, wisdom, clarity, energy and finances for that day. I pray for the needs of my family too.
d. Confession. "Forgive us our debts and we forgive those who are indebted to us." John Stott said that Christian is someone who forgives the inexcusable in others because the inexcusable has been forgiven in him. I keep repentance and forgiveness as specific as possible, and I keep on doing it until I am free from it.
e. Protection "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil." The bible says to watch and pray so that we will not fall into temptation. Watchful prayer is recognizing the devil's schemes of temptation, asking God for protection against this strategy, and resisting Satan in prayer. We are in a spiritual battle! Let's not be spiritually naive. I pray protection on my family too.
f. Declaration "For yours is the kingdom the power and the glory." This is not in the Matthew text but I like to end by praying beyond my own life, into other situations like my family, friends, church, leadership team, and other churches we work with.

I encourage you to use this as a skeleton for your prayer. Flesh it out with your own situations, struggles and needs. Hopefully this will make your fasting more than a hunger strike!
See you tomorrow night.

"Send Revival, Start with me." Fast Day 1

Revival. Such an evocative word. It brings to my mind images of big tents, bellowing preachers, swaying choirs and enthralled crowds. I don't hear the word that much these days, perhaps because of the perception that much of what men call revival may simply be more hype and emotionalism than a genuine move of God. That said, I've found myself reading more about revival recently and feel a fresh longing and faith for it. We need it desperately in our churches. In our nation. In our lives.

In particular, I've been reading about the revivals that sparked the Great Awakening in New England  around the  early 18th century. Jonathan Edwards, the New England Puritan, was one of America’s foremost Christian thinkers and became the president of Princeton College. He was a thinking man, but  he vigorously pursued, prayed for and preached towards revival in the Great Awakening.

While many people at the time were skeptical about the strange physical manifestations in these revivals, Edwards resisted the idea that religion had to be morbid or subdued, claiming that true religion consisted of holy affections. Although he admitted that these affections required discernment, he was an advocate of the possibility of physical and emotional  phenomena when people encountered God’s presence. “‘Tis no wonder that when the thoughts are so fixed, and the affections so strong, and the whole soul so engaged and ravished . . . that all other parts of the body are so affected as to be deprived of their strength, and the whole frame ready to dissolve.” I'm not sure if you have ever watched  a paramedic revive a body back to life, but it is often dramatic and messy. Are we open to revival being a little messy? I'd rather have messy life than orderly lifelessness, wouldn't you?

So while Edwards didn't dismiss these physical phenomena, he called people to look for what he called the Distinguishing Marks of the work of God’s Spirit in revival.  "Distinguish between the essential and secondary work of the Spirit. The essential work of the Spirit is love of Christ, obedience to the Scripture, holiness and love of our neighbor. The secondary work may include physical manifestations but these are not essential.  Revival should be sought. If it is revival, it will result in the salvation of the lost and the awakening of God’s people."

History tells us that the Great Awakening touched and changed every facet of our nation, from politics, to commerce to education to church life. These revivals could not be dismissed as mere emotionalism. They were transformational. How we need this in our day!

God is Sovereign and we cannot force Him to repeat what He did 300 years ago. However, we can pray for an awakening in God's people that spills over into our world.  Let's pray on the first day of the fast that the Sprit would awaken us to these marks of revival: love of Christ,  obedience to the Scripture, holiness and love of our neighbor. This is the heart of revival. 

We cannot ask for God an awakening in our nation if we are living in hypocrisy and idolatry as His people. Let's remember that His promise in 1 Chronicles 7:14 begins with His people and overflows to the nation." If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. "

In the inimitable words of of Matt Redman, "Send revival, start with me."

The Reward of Fasting.

We generally call a community fast twice a year. I have to admit that I  normally go in asking, "Why are we doing this, again? "but always come out going, "Oh, now I remember why we did this!"

So why do we fast as a church?

In Matthew 6:16-18 Jesus speaks very clearly about fasting.  "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 you face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father, who sees what is done in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret will reward you."  

1) We fast because Jesus commanded it. He said, "When you fast," not if.
He also said that while He was with His disciples they would not fast, but when He left they would fast. (Mark 2)
2) We do not fast to win the approval of people. "Do not look gloomy like the Hypocrites, they have received their reward." Neither do we fast to earn God's approval. We already have God's approval through Jesus. Nothing we do could make Him love us more!
3) We fast because there is a great reward in drawing close to Jesus. "Your Father in heaven sees in secret and rewards you."Though few people enjoy fasting, there is a very real reward and that reward is Jesus himself. In fasting, we deny ourselves food in order to feast on the Bread of Life and the  Living Water. Fasting is ultimately feasting on Jesus. Time and time again, people come out of a fast saying, "I may be hungry for food, but Jesus has satisfied and sustained me in a way that no food could."
4) We fast because it is a source of  victory in spiritual warfare. When Jesus was tempted by the devil he fasted.  When Jesus' disciples struggled to deliver a boy of demons, he said, "This kind only comes out by prayer and fasting." Matt 17:21
5) We fast because it is a catalyst for mission Acts13:2 "They were worshipping and fasting and the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work I have for them.'"

So I urge you all to join us from Monday to Wednesday as we fast together. It's a liquid fast, which means anything from just water, to juice, to soup, or all of the above.
A few practical helps:


a. Be prepared for some dizziness, headache, or nausea in the early stages. Most of our bodies have never gone without food for longer than a few hours.

b. Lead up to and break your fast gradually with meals that are light and easy to digest. Trying to gorge yourself following a fast will only make you sick and will leave you with an unpleasant memory of fasting.

c. Sometime during your fast, mix your fast with prayer, time in Scripture reading, singing, or devotional reading. Remember: fasting is not an end in itself. Seek the Lord, not the experience of fasting. Keep checking your motives concerning your fasts. Hypocrisy and spiritual pride can easily creep in. There is a reward for fasting, but only fasting done with the right motives (Matthew 23:28).

Each day we focus on a common theme, gathering from 6:30 - 7:30pm in the evening to pray through that particular theme together. I've felt going in to this fast that we should focus on the overall theme of Revival, and I will send out a blog each day starting Sunday, to let you know what the next day's focus will be.

I anticipate a deeply rewarding time as we seek the Lord together.