Thoughts on “PRAYER AND FASTING” from Herb Buwalda, our stewardship coach: When I was young, I thought fasting could easily be explained like this: “If I go without something and pray, then God will do something good for me.” Over the years, I have found others with this same understanding about “prayer and fasting.” But, over time, I have found it incomplete and inadequate. I have learned something much more profound about the spiritual journey and this ancient practice. One Lenten season I was reading Luke’s gospel and I found these words about prayer and fasting at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. It said, “Jesus returned from the Jordan full of the Holy Spirit and was led by the Spirit into the desert where he was tempted by the Devil for forty days. In all that time he ate nothing, so that he was hungry when it was over.” I continued reading the story of Jesus’ temptations, his struggle with the Devil’s ideas for his life, and I noticed the most powerful thing about the story. It wasn’t trying to convince God to do something. God was already determined! The most powerful thing, for me, was Jesus’ deep determination to DO what His Father wanted him to do in Galilee! And, after that time of testing, he went off to do it under the power and authority of the Holy Spirit; the same Spirit that led him to the wilderness in the first place. It read: “Then Jesus returned to Galilee, and saw the power of the Holy Spirit was with him.” That was a moment of great discovery and it changed everything for me. It meant, for Jesus, “prayer and fasting” wasn’t about getting His Father to DO something FOR him; it was so he would learn how to DO something for His Father in heaven! He fasted and prayed to learn to depend on God, to discover His Father’s voice and direction for his life, and then to GO DO IT in Galilee! Dallas Willard says it this way: “PRAYER IS TALKING WITH GOD ABOUT WHAT WE ARE GOING TO BE DOING TOGETHER.” That’s what Jesus learned in the wilderness as he fasted and prayed: he learned what he and his Father would be doing together. As we enter this final week before the “ReBuild Mt. Pleasant” Commitment Sunday on November 16, I hope we will all find some time to “fast and pray” about the challenges ahead. This is important. This matters. This will prepare us better to meet the needs of a new generation. We are leaving a legacy of ministry: putting an exclamation point on the 22 years of the Wheaton ministry, but also preparing for the exciting chapter ahead. But, we don’t just “fast and pray” to get God to do something FOR us; we do it to find the spiritual strength we need to DO what God asks us to do, to DO things consistent with what God is doing, and to join God in doing it. We are doing something FOR God! Each day this week I promise to pray for you. This is an amazing moment. I believe Mt. Pleasant will become much stronger spiritually by giving sacrificially on behalf of all of those we will introduce to Christ in the years ahead. And, as we fast and pray, remember the one thing that matters most: we want to please and honor God with our commitments, as we each answer this question for ourselves, “What must I do to inherit the life You want for me?” It is a deep honor to be joining you on this journey. Herb Buwalda ReBuild Mt. Pleasant Stewardship Coach
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 16:19:48 +0000