Responding to God's Call; Prayer and Fasting

shiftJV

Responding to God’s Call; Prayer and Fasting

Spiritual Disciplines. Doesn’t sound like fun, does it? Nobody likes discipline, right? Well, you are probably thinking of the word discipline as punishment for wrong doing. Tonight I’d like you to consider the root word of discipline; disciple. A disciple is a follower, in our case, a Christ follower. In this situation, discipline means the rigor or training effect of experience, adversity. Like a soldier training for his job on the battlefield, we need to train as Christians. I want to encourage you to look at this series as training in your development as a Christian. Tonight we care going to cover two disciplines.

The first is prayer. Prayer is your lifeline to God. It’s how we communicate with Him. Prayer keeps our heart connected with God’s heart. When I was a kid, long before cell phones when home phones still had cords, we played ‘telephone’ with two tin cans and a string. Through some magic mystery of science, when I spoke into my can, my sister, connected by a string and her own tin can, could hear me. We told many secrets through this can and string contraption, and hatched many plans. The thing is though, if you snipped the string, the conversation was over, the magic no longer worked.

Prayer is our tin can and string telephone to God. As long as we stay connected to Him, He leads our life and gives us hope. When we drop the can or cut the string, we lose that connection. Suddenly we find ourselves lost and overwhelmed. Prayer is our lifeline to God, and it is our responsibility to pick up the can and stay in connection. God is such a gentleman, He’s not going to force Himself on you. You have to choose Him of your own free will.

So how do we pray? What does prayer look like? How do you know if you are doing it right? Prayer is simply a conversation with God. Just like you would sit and have a conversation with a friend, God wants to sit and hear your heart. He’s an encouraging friend though, who truly does have the power to change your situation.

Ok, so it’s a conversation. But what do you say? It feels so one sided, doesn’t it? Like He’s not going to respond. Scripture gives us a clue into this in Matthew 6:6:

“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you…”

It helps to close yourself off with God. Find a place in your world that you can separate yourself and seek Him. I have two places. I like to pray in my laundry room. No one else goes in there, I think they are afraid they may catch a chore or something. So it’s kind of my secret place. I’ve got a chair in there. The hum of the machines covers any noises I make. Which I do encourage you to pray out loud, it helps you articulate what you are speaking to God about. It also keeps you focused.

The other place I really like to pray is in my car, when I’m by myself. I like that too, because I can be as loud as I want and I control the stereo.

God knows us. He knows that we are easily distracted. He knows that we care about what others think of us. This is why praying in private is our best option; that way all we care about is what He thinks of us.

Scripture goes on in this chapter to tell us how exactly to pray. Hopefully you guys are familiar with this prayer:

This is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”  Matthew 6:6, 9-13

Jesus didn’t only give us this prayer to be a wrote prayer, meaning one we recite over and over until the words are burned into our brains and it becomes meaningless. He gave us the Lord’s prayer as a model or a template for how we are to pray.

Let's unpack this prayer.

Our Father in heaven. God is our father, he loves us as only a father can love, unfailing and merciful. He’s watching over every detail of our life.

Hallowed be your name. Sacred, honored, incredible is our God. Keep us sensitive to who you really are, all powerful, loving, all-knowing, Lord over everything, able to move in every situation.

Your kingdom come, Your will be done. God establish Your kingdom and Your will in my heart and life, and in the lives of people around me. Keep me kingdom minded, meaning that Your priorities are my priorities.

Give us our daily bread. Provide for our needs God. We are weak and dependant people, you are our supplier in every way. I trust you for tomorrow.

Forgive our debts. God, I’ve sinned against you. I’m sorry. I repent. I turn from my wrong doing and I receive what Jesus did on the cross for my sin.

We also forgive our debtors. Help me to forgive the people who have hurt me. Just as you haven’t held a grudge against my sin, allow me to do the same for others.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Help me to remember Lord, that You always provide a means of escape from temptation. Help me to avoid it, and to look to you instead. Keep me out of Satan’s grasp. Hold me in Your hand instead.

You can see where this prayer would be life changing, right? 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray continually. Remember our example of the tin can string telephone. Don’t put the phone down. Invite God into every area of your life.

The second discipline this evening is that of fasting. When I say fasting I don’t mean running fast. Wow, I’d for sure be disqualified if that was the case. We always laugh that I would be the first one to die in the Hunger Games.

So not going fast. What I am talking about is going without something in order to spend that effort on your relationship with God. It’s saying that God is more important that whatever it is you are giving up.

Matthew 6:16-17 has something to say about fasting too.

“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, wash your face, so that it will not be obvious that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Fasting is an opportunity for you to choose Jesus. Giving up food is one way to fast, and that’s a great thing to do. It may be really difficult for you guys to give up food though, because of your ages and your growth. But you can still fast other things and I encourage you to think about what you can do without for the sake of growing in God.

Examples might be videogames. If you spend 4 hours a day playing video games and can’t manage to find five minutes to read your Bible each day then I’m betting that God could really change your life if you fasted video games for a season. The idea is that you take the time that you were spending on whatever it is you are giving up and instead spending that time and effort with God.

Maybe texting is something you should fast. If texting consumes your free time then perhaps it’s time to give it up for a season while you get your life centered on God and the Word.

Maybe you fast sleep. Not like the whole night, but say you sacrifice that last half an hour in the morning. You set the clock back and get up a little earlier so you can spend some time with the Lord. Early in the morning is my favorite time with Him, it really gives you perspective for the entire day.

You could fast soda or sweets. You could fast gum. You could fast electronics or Facebook. You could fast from music in order to hear God’s voice more clearly. It doesn’t matter what you fast nearly as much as it matters what you do with that fast. Purposefully choose Jesus and time with Him. Know that you are giving up something important to you in order to make HIM more important to you. When I choose an item to fast, I like to try to choose an item that is a hangup for me – that way I will grow in my character during the fast.

Like our scripture says, don’t whine about what you are fasting. In fact, let it be something secret between you and God. He will reward you for your faithfulness.

This week we’ve had opportunity to seek God at church more than usual. Those of you who have sacrificed your evenings the past few nights have experienced God in a fresh way. Understand that deepening your experience with God is not limited to church experiences. Prayer and Fasting are personal disciplines that will grow your relationship with God with a depth that you cannot receive at church. Personal spiritual disciplines, meaning the investments you make on your own time, those are the anchors that tie your life to Christ. If you only receive from Jesus at church, when you stop going to church, you stop walking with Him. On the other hand, if your relationship with Jesus is something you pursue daily on your own time, it will last for the long-term. And we’ve talked about this before, but I cannot over-emphasize the importance of finishing this race. Your eternity has not been affected if you don’t serve Jesus through your final days. A season of attending church during junior high is not going to keep you out of hell’s flames. It’s about walking with Him throughout your life.

So tonight you have an opportunity to take your relationship to the next level. This is your chance to commit to prayer and fasting. I have some little cards here at the altar. If you feel like you can commit to prayer and fasting, I’d like you to come forward, take a card and a pen, pray about it and fill it out.