We are not running our lives at all. We are being run by our flesh. Fasting is about freedom. Starve the flesh and feed the spirit. John Mark Comer
To fast is to return our attention to ourselves – our spiritual center – our souls.
Its easy to lose touch with our center when we allow the outside world to seize our attention with its sensory, sensational, sensual offerings. And when we focus on these things that couple only with our physical selves, we become self-centered. Egocentric.
And, let’s not forget, we have real physical needs: hunger, thirst, human connection, and much more. We are not bifurcated creatures whose physical and spiritual sides can be separated – not until death, anyway. We are whole beings. Each of us has a soul and a body, woven inextricably together in the Imago Dei.
Even the Lord’s Prayer, as we saw in the previous episode, has a line devoted to asking God to provide our daily bread. So why would we ever spend one or more days shunning that divinely created need?
Fasting has many benefits, but today we will focus on one in particular: that of re-centering – living from the soul. Fasting is a discipline that in the moment may seem pointless, but in the end is a training exercise that yields spiritual strength.
So let’s slow down, and fast.
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Extras
The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays. Soren Kierkegaard
Our modern ears interpret the word pray as ask God to give me something I want or need.
But the word pray used in the Greek text of the Bible means, literally, to move towards the will of God – so that our will might be exchanged for his.
We see this meaning in play as Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before his crucifixion. Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me. Yet not my will, but yours be done.
This is, perhaps, the most enchanting possibility available to those of us with free will – to choose to to relinquish our will in exchange for his.
This is the purpose of prayer.
Today, we will see the purpose of prayer unfold before us in The Lord’s Prayer that Jesus gave to his disciples – and to us. And the walk through that prayer is awe striking.
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Scripture Meditation Guide for the Lord’s Prayer
Father of us in the heavens – Psalm 139
Hallowed by the name of you – Exodus 3
Come the kingdom of you – Matthew 13:44-46
Be done the will of you as in heaven so also in earth – Luke 22:39-44
The bread of us daily, grant us today – Exodus 16
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil – Daniel 3
For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever, Amen. – Psalm 23