Fasting and Prayer: Tools of Worship

Perhaps the biggest indictment against American Christians is the busyness that keeps us from spending time with God. I've never been on an international mission trip, but I have many friends from different parts of the world and I have many friends who have traveled to different parts of the world and the stories they tell of people spending hours (yes hours!) in worship is vastly different from my own experiences. I've heard stories of people walking for days just to hear someone read the Bible. I've heard of people sitting for hours in the underground church of China taking notes and studying the Scriptures through the night. Here at home I've heard gripes and complaints when the service slides past noon and I've seen people with Tourette Syndrome-like movements shake a watch until the whole congregation can see it. There seems to be a profound difference. We are too busy for God and certainly too busy to spend time with him.

Enter fasting and prayer. Fasting and prayer are two spiritual practices the church has utilized for centuries and in recent days the two have fallen on hard times. Fundamental to the practice is the very simple fact that in order to fast and prayer, one has to dedicate the all-important time necessary for the practice. We have no problem spending a couple of hours deciding where to eat, eating and hanging out, but if we take that same time slot and fill it with things like bible reading, prayer and meditation, then we suddenly don't have time. The truth is, we make time for what is important to us. When we fast and pray, we are saying with our attitude and action that our relationship with God is important and he is worthy of my most precious commodity - TIME.

As you walk with the Lord, you might consider giving up a meal a day or every meal one day a week and dedicate that time to the Lord. We spend about 56 hours a week sleeping, 40 to 60 hours a week (or more) working, depending on your recreational habits another 20 or so hours playing and 20 or more hours a week eating. Don't you know God would speak to you if you spent one day's allotment for food (between two and six hours) in prayer and meditation with Him? Our problem isn't lack of knowledge about God. Our problem is that we don't really know the God we all know about. By spending some time fasting and praying, we can get to know the God who desires to make himself known to us. I hope you'll take the time to rekindle your relationship with the Lord, this week!

Worship Takes Work III

When I left off last time, I was talking about being open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Just yesterday my oldest son was talking with me about what it means to be a Christian. He asked, "Are we Jewish?" I told him we were not Jewish and that to be a Christian meant to believe in / follow Jesus. Once we established what it meant to be a Christian I began to talk with him about the role of the Holy Spirit. I told him that when a person becomes a Christian, the Holy Spirit comes to live in that person and he (the Holy Spirit) helps the Christian live like a Christian should live. I encouraged my son to learn how to listen to the Holy Spirit.

When we worship (and remember worship isn't limited to singing a few songs at 11am on Sunday morning...) we need to know how to listen to the Holy Spirit. The very best way to know how to listen to the Holy Spirit is to practice listening to Him on an everyday basis. When you feel led or sense that or have an awareness that you should or should not do something, that is a pretty good indication for the Christian that the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. I experienced the awareness of the Holy Spirit this week and when I didn't immediately act on it, I missed the opportunity God was giving me to bless somebody. I missed two other opportunities because I was "too busy" to slow down enough to do what I knew the Lord was telling me to do. In this case, I finally arranged my schedule and did what the Lord was telling me through the Holy Spirit and the person was blessed and so was I.

The Holy Spirit leads us in truth. He reveals more of Jesus to us. He comes along side of us in this journey of faith. The coolest part of learning to listen to the Holy Spirit is to realize that he does not desire to hide himself from you or conceal what it is he wants you to know. He is in the business of revealing himself to you so you may know God more fully and understand his will more clearly. If you want to be a worshipper, then just slow down for a few minutes today and listen to the Holy Spirit. He'll speak to you if you'll listen!

Thank You For Your Prayers

Thank you for praying for us while my wife was in the hospital. She was able to come home Sunday afternoon. Please continue to pray for us as she recovers from surgery. I'll resume my blog on preparing to worship tomorrow. Thanks!