Holy Habit #2: Prayer and Fasting
This post has been cross posted on White Rock Fellowship's blog.
A few days ago my wife and I were watching the Bachelorette, had the TV on in the background while studying something really important, and I overheard the Bachelorette Emily Maynard (I don’t know how I know her name) say, “I’m praying everything goes alright .” She was, of course, referring to her 3 dates/make out sessions planned for the day. Now, I do not know her personally, so I can’t speak with certainty about the sincerity of her prayer, but it seems at first glance to be a bit misguided.
To be fair, Emily’s understanding of prayer is indicative of most people’s idea of prayer, Christians included. Like a lucky pair of socks, or a worn out rabbits foot kept on a key chain, prayer is nothing more than a good luck charm we turn to in times of need. Praying is rubbing the lamp hoping our God genie will pop out and grant us our wish.
I want to be clear, when I talk about prayer and fasting as a holy habit, I DO NOT MEAN THIS. So let me define what I mean by prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting is the consistent discipline of communicating our need and dependance on God, to God, for every aspect of life. It is okay to approach God with requests. Jesus himself tells his disciples to “ask and it will be given to you.” (Luke 11:9-13) He reminds them that even evil people give good gifts, so how much more will their loving Father give his children what they ask for?
Unfortunately, many of us have confused one of the things that can occur in prayer (asking God for things) to be the only reason prayer exists. Prayer and fasting exist as a pathway for us to communicate dependance, to remember our utter need for Christ, and to rejoice in the access we have to God through Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Prayer is the vocal act of dependance and fasting is the symbolic action showing dependance on God.
A quick note on fasting: Historically, fasting has always meant to refrain from food, sometimes water, for a period of time to focus all of our needs on Christ. Fasting tells our soul that we need God more than food. He’s that essential. Recently, fasting has become a more general idea for giving up anything that is part of our consistent life, like listening to the radio in the car or Facebook. It is a good thing to practice self discipline with those things and if things like Facebook, watching sports, or radio is distracting you from God or becoming more important than God, then you ought to refrain from it for a while to gain perspective. However, I don’t believe we can call that fasting! Fasting needs to be refraining from something essential, like food or water, for it to really do what it is supposed to do. Setting aside a consistent time to fast teaches the believer that God is more important than food and if we can teach ourselves that, it won’t be difficult to see him as more important than anything.I digress…Communicating need and dependance on a consistent basis to God through prayer and fasting is a holy habit all believers need to develop in their lives. So here’s some suggestions how to make this happen:
After praising God for his presence in your life and the greatness of his character, begin your prayer by telling God how much you need him.
Recognize places you are in over your head and communicate to God that you can’t do it and need him.
With your family or roommates, talk openly about where you are overwhelmed and pray for each other about those areas.
Set aside a consistent time to fast. If you have never fasted before, start by skipping one meal, and then progress from there. Don’t make a big deal about it to the people around you. Every time you feel hungry, (and if you’re like me, you will), say quickly to God, “I need you more than food.”
Last but not least, remember the gospel. We have access to God because of his grace through his Son, not because we deserve it. Our relationship with him, our ability to pray and have God hear us, is completely dependent on God’s mercy and love.
Do you make a habit of praying and fasting? What has helped you maintain this?