A Word on Fasting: Worthless

Fasting can help us pray more intently. Fasting can help us get closer to Our God. Fasting can help us walk with Jesus. Fasting can help us.

Unless it doesn’t.

Unless it only helps us put on a religious show (for others, God, or maybe just ourselves)…instead of actually helping us pray. Unless it just serves to make us feel holier…instead of really helping us get closer with God. Unless it only masks how we persist at running our own races…instead of helping us walk with Jesus.

In Isaiah 58:1-7 we’re reminded that a potentially helpful practice like fasting can also become worthless.

Or worse, it can be destructive to our prayers and our relationship with God. And worst, fasting can be destructive to getting a better glimpse of God’s will for us and our situations—the very hope of fasting in the first place.

Fasting can help us. Or fasting can get in the way. So, what do we do? How can we make sure fasting falls on the helpful side?

In Isaiah 58, we see that when the people were fasting they expected God to change his actions while they did not show any willingness to change their actions. If we were in God’s shoes in that equation, we’d throw a flag on the play and cry, “double standard.”

For us, if our fasting is not accompanied by changes in our actions, it is worthless. If we are not willing to live differently, it’s worthless. If we aren’t going to get any more sensitive to suffering people (or stop hurting people ourselves)… Or if we aren’t going to get any more compassionate towards those who are on the underside of the rest of the world’s success (or stop putting people down ourselves)… Or if we aren’t going to get any more concerned with helping God do something about the things that are aren’t right (or stop messing things up ourselves)…then our fasting is a waste of time.

As we fast & pray, we must check our actions and willingness to become different than we presently are. I hope you will join me in practicing “prayer & fasting” on Wednesday, May 5^th. Will you also join me in asking Jesus to show you & I how we need to make changes in our actions?

My Addiction is Deleted

I had downloaded a free version of Baseball Mogul (2007 edition I think it was) last spring. It was a great game for someone who had a childhood like mine--getting up most days of summer break and playing baseball by myself in the backyard; following the Cardinals and my favorite players on TV; buying, sorting, & studying baseball cards. I even had created--this is where it gets nerdy/dorky/obsessive--a whole imaginary league complete with rosters and stats.

For a kid like me, Baseball Mogul is an invention that seems to come right out of my brain. You can play with historical teams & players. You can play with imaginary players. You get to be General Manager and run the farm system, draft players, make trades. You get to be Manager and change the lineups. (The only thing it doesn't let you enjoy is playing the actual games as players.)
This wonderful thing called Baseball Mogul was how vegged out...then how I spent hours...then how I avoided doing things that I really should've been doing. This became my addiction and one of the devil's temptation specialties with me.

So, as part of my confession here, I want to share that I have "repented" and Baseball Mogul is no longer on my computer. In the midst of the beginning of the baseball season, I do miss it at moments and wish I could fantasize about being in charge of a baseball franchise. Yet, I am not wasting time away from better things--like sleep, my wife, my son, my faith, ...

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.

A Word on Fasting: Praying for Divine Action

April 7^th is the next Day of Prayer & Fasting for our church. So, I want to share some more thoughts about the habit of fasting.

Another example of fasting in Scripture is in Daniel 9. I’m especially drawn to verses 17-19. To a large extent, all the verses leading up to these last sentences of Daniel’s prayer are prelude. And the 12 verses of prelude go something like this: “God, you’ve always been faithful to us, but we’ve have failed you over and over again.” A primary element of fasting is admitting our need for God. It is arrogant for us to pretend that our broken situation (whatever it may be as the people of God) is just innocent happenstance and has nothing to do with our own (and our forefathers’ and foremothers’) failings. We admit this as we fast and pray.

Daniel prays about a “city” that bears God’s “Name.” To translate Daniel’s praying into our context, I think of Jesus’ words when he called us a “city on a hill” (Matthew 5:14). We call ourselves a church and we also bear the Name of Christ. Part of our praying is not for God to bless us with success as a religious club, but that His Holy Spirit would act within us and through us. We plead for God to take action in us—because God’s reputation is at stake—when we fast and pray.