vendredi, février 25, 2005

The Season of Lent (February 16, 2005)

I've been thinking and reading about the whole fasting concept. Why do/should we do it? Is it truly beneficial?
The WORLD has really picked up on the idea for the sake of health, weight-loss, toxic cleansing etc. Some religions practice fasting of all sorts to transcend the physical body to a higher state of spiritual consciousness... (does that work?)
I'm not too concerned with either of these reasons/forms of fasting. But I do want to know why Jesus, and the Apostles spoke of fasting with the assumption that believers would participate in such a discipline.
Hmmm, I think that last word of my last paragraph is part of the answer to my question: DISCIPLINE. Why do we need disciplines? More than just a mind-over-matter; more than a display of self will-power, I believe (and am learning even more so) that to compel my entire being- body, soul, mind- to greater hunger and thirst for God and His Word, I need to train/discipline my body to depend on and desire Him.
I've been reading John Piper's A Hunger for God. His goal in the book is
"...that it might awaken a hunger for the supremecy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples. Fasting proves the presence, and fans the falme, of that hunger. It is an intensifier of spiritual desire. It is a faithful enemy of fatal bondage to innocent things. It is the physical exclamation point at the end of the sentence: "This much, O God, I long for you and for the mainifestiation of your glory in the world!""
"The strongest, most mature Christians I have ever met are the hungriest for God."
"If you don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this. There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened. I invite you to turn from the dulling effects of food and the dangers of idolatry, and to say with some simple fast: "This much, O God, I want you."
With Jer and I applying for, and waiting on, the opportunity to minister at a camp this summer, I feel the need to fast and pray even stronger. There is an inevitable increase in spiritual warfare when a believer steps out in faith and obedience into some sort (any kind) of ministry. The 'attacks' may be subtle, but none-the-less, the enemy is threatened by any advancements of the Kingdom of God.
"The Son of God began his earthly ministry with a forty-day fast. This should give us pause. Especailly if we -who are not God - have moved into ministry heedless of the battle we may have to fight. Why did Jesus do this? Why did God lead him to it? And what about us? Can we really face the superhuman hazards of life and ministry without walking with Jesus through the wilderness of fasting?"
Seeing as that every one of us, as believers, have been called to be ministers of the Truth, wouldn't it go to say that we would all benefit from times of fasting- to refocus our dependancy's off of earthly things, and onto things of God? Just as Jesus was empowered both physically and spiritually in the desert- while He fasted and relyed on God's strength- I believe we would be greatly empowered in each of our lives if we would submit to the disciplines of fasting, combined with prayer and meditation on His "living and active" Word.
Just some thoughts I figured I'd share with you!
Posted by Jeremy J Harnett :: 5:03 p.m. :: 0 comments

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