Firstly, I don't really identify with the term 'Korean' style because I'm not from America and I've never heard of this term until Caleb mentioned it during the meeting. But I guess this is what a communal prayer where everyone is praying on their own at the same time is called here.
I believe the first time I experience this was sometime while I was attending the Assemblies of God Church back in Malaysia. I'm not sure if the AOG here is the same but I would presume so. I remember one event very clearly. My sister injured her knee or something and the people that ran the Sunday School decided to pray for her. That's the first time I saw what laying hands but I don't think I quite understood it then. I was about 10 at this time. So Ruth, a slim lady about 22-23 years old sat down with my sister on the floor and started praying and everyone started joining in and praying. Some out loud, some in their hears. The sight of this was somewhat amazing. Ruth you see, was kind of frail looking, always pale and never without her blue cardigan despite the hot weather in Malaysia. I sometimes wondered if she would just fall really sick and die. Not being in such a good shape herself I wondered how she could pray for others too, really believing that God can heal and with that, bringing others into prayer.
That was one event of the usual Charismatic flair that would occur at Church. When I'm praying with others, there are time when I really feel like praying outloud too. Praying outloud is something new to me because I never had the courage to do so until I joined small group last fall. Opening and closing a prayer is different, I mean praying outloud as in saying out all the things I'm saying to God in my heart at that moment of time. Here in AA, I had a couple, maybe 3 experience with a small prayer group where everyone was just praying outloud. Sometimes when I has things to say I'd join in, and when I had nothing to say, I'd listen to another person's prayer. I believe simply coming together to pray is something God really loves and I don't want to restrict anybody when they are compelled to pray. I pray that we're led by the Holy Spirit everytime we have a prayer meeting and if someone feels the Spirit is urging them to pray out I want them to be comfortable doing do. I also don't want them to feel awkward if we start going around in a circle and it comes to their turn. They shouldn't be praying because it's 'their turn'. I don't want them to be focused on coming up with a prayer either. I hope they can be relaxed and pray at their own pace and listen to prayers with a clear mind if they want to.
So I hope to lead my next and hopefully every prayer meeting this way. It doesn't matter if people pray outloud or not. I want to give everyone the freedom pray what their heart is calling out for. They can pray in their hearts if that is what they're comfortable with. And I will pray that they will have the courage to pray outloud if that is what the Spirit wants. I will just be praying and throwing out things I want to pray for as the meeting goes along. If there is someone who want to shout out praises that's great and if someone can play a worship song that's great too. I felt conversational prayer was awesome during small group but for the past week, the idea of something freer during a prayer meeting is just stuck in my head. All I need is for God to use me to gather people together in prayer and worship and I hope that God uses me to compel others to pray while I'm praying.
Showing posts with label Prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prayer. Show all posts
Monday, June 20, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
The Notorious "mhm"
The title says it all: I want to talk about the mutters and nods of agreement during a prayer meeting.
So what exactly am I talking about? What are these "mutters and nods of agreement during a prayer meeting". I am talking about when you're praying and someone, next to you or across the circle, hums an "mhm" or whispers a "yes Lord" in response to the words that you just prayed. The contents of this post relate to conversational prayer, the way that AIV does a majority of its prayer. Conversational prayer is the prayer being carried out like a conversation; one person speaks, the other listens, and then they switch. In a group setting, one person prays and everyone listens. Obviously this would post is irrelevant for something like "korean-style prayer" aka praying in one voice. Here's what I think about the mutters and nods of agreement.
"Prayer has everything to do with the agreement of the human heart with the words that are said."
This quote was spoken by Jess Shao, the Chinese Director of IHOP. I had heard him speak at the retreat my church went on this past memorial weekend. I completely agree with what Jess says: you speak words from your heart so obviously your heart agrees with the words that are being said, but what does your heart agree with the words that others say? I think I could change Jess' quote a little bit and say: "Corporate prayer has everything to do with the hearts of the people agreeing with the words that are said." How much more aligned and in tune are two people when their hearts both agree with the words that are spoken during prayer? It has a powerful effect on the relationship, I believe. When two people's hearts desire for the same thing and they pray about it together and the words spoken are words that both could interchangeably use for their respective prayers, God is among them and will answer that prayer.
"Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven."
-Matthew 18:19-20
So the question now is...why and how should we express our agreement with other peoples' prayers? Why should we express our agreement with others' prayers?
Simple. It works both ways. For yourself, if you're looking to agree with another person's prayers, audibly expressing your agreement is a way of making sure you're paying attention and your mind isn't drifting away.
It also allows the person praying know that people are respecting their prayer, they are listening to their prayer, and they are agreeing with what their saying. Like the verse from Matthew says, when two agree, our Father in heaven will answer that prayer. So a person praying and the person listening know that they both agree.
How should we express our agreement with other peoples' prayers?
Personally, I feel that the "nods of agreement", the mutters of "mhm" and "yes Lord" are good enough. I think it's overboard if someone is praying in a normal tone and someone yells "YES, PRAISE GOD" and while I love the enthusiasm, the focus of that interruption has gone from God to the person expressing agreement.
So, in short, I encourage these mutterings of "mhm" and "yes Lord" during prayer meetings! I feel personally that I am encouraged when I hear the agreement from other people in a prayer meeting haha and I feel, for lack of a better word, "better" about the prayer I am making (not that I am to base what I pray off the reactions of others, but requests and desires backed by friends feels good nonetheless). Imagine a meeting where everyone contributes their own act of agreement to a person's prayer...how much more encouraged is EVERYONE in that group from the words that that person speaks and prays.
Thoughts.
So what exactly am I talking about? What are these "mutters and nods of agreement during a prayer meeting". I am talking about when you're praying and someone, next to you or across the circle, hums an "mhm" or whispers a "yes Lord" in response to the words that you just prayed. The contents of this post relate to conversational prayer, the way that AIV does a majority of its prayer. Conversational prayer is the prayer being carried out like a conversation; one person speaks, the other listens, and then they switch. In a group setting, one person prays and everyone listens. Obviously this would post is irrelevant for something like "korean-style prayer" aka praying in one voice. Here's what I think about the mutters and nods of agreement.
"Prayer has everything to do with the agreement of the human heart with the words that are said."
This quote was spoken by Jess Shao, the Chinese Director of IHOP. I had heard him speak at the retreat my church went on this past memorial weekend. I completely agree with what Jess says: you speak words from your heart so obviously your heart agrees with the words that are being said, but what does your heart agree with the words that others say? I think I could change Jess' quote a little bit and say: "Corporate prayer has everything to do with the hearts of the people agreeing with the words that are said." How much more aligned and in tune are two people when their hearts both agree with the words that are spoken during prayer? It has a powerful effect on the relationship, I believe. When two people's hearts desire for the same thing and they pray about it together and the words spoken are words that both could interchangeably use for their respective prayers, God is among them and will answer that prayer.
"Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven."
-Matthew 18:19-20
So the question now is...why and how should we express our agreement with other peoples' prayers? Why should we express our agreement with others' prayers?
Simple. It works both ways. For yourself, if you're looking to agree with another person's prayers, audibly expressing your agreement is a way of making sure you're paying attention and your mind isn't drifting away.
It also allows the person praying know that people are respecting their prayer, they are listening to their prayer, and they are agreeing with what their saying. Like the verse from Matthew says, when two agree, our Father in heaven will answer that prayer. So a person praying and the person listening know that they both agree.
How should we express our agreement with other peoples' prayers?
Personally, I feel that the "nods of agreement", the mutters of "mhm" and "yes Lord" are good enough. I think it's overboard if someone is praying in a normal tone and someone yells "YES, PRAISE GOD" and while I love the enthusiasm, the focus of that interruption has gone from God to the person expressing agreement.
So, in short, I encourage these mutterings of "mhm" and "yes Lord" during prayer meetings! I feel personally that I am encouraged when I hear the agreement from other people in a prayer meeting haha and I feel, for lack of a better word, "better" about the prayer I am making (not that I am to base what I pray off the reactions of others, but requests and desires backed by friends feels good nonetheless). Imagine a meeting where everyone contributes their own act of agreement to a person's prayer...how much more encouraged is EVERYONE in that group from the words that that person speaks and prays.
Thoughts.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Inreach
We're all to familiar with outreach. We set forth to welcome people who are not believers, people who are against Christianity, people who are interested, people who are falling out of faith, people who are in need and any other persons who hasn't known Christ yet. Carrying the same meaning, we have an array of reason for outreach such as spreading the Good News, spreading the Gospel, bringing glory to God, offering redemption and salvation from sin, preparing people for His second coming, demonstrating God's amazing grace, living out our faith, showering people with God's love and so on.
A certain experience I had this week though made me realize there is another kind of reaching going on here, on campus. It's what I'd call inreach. There are many churches around campus and there are many Christian focused campus organizations whose outreach sometime crosses over to inreach. This is where they reach out to believers belonging to other Christian groups or Churches. I believe their reasons are primarily comparative such as we have better activities, we're more fun, we're more friendly, we know the Bible better, out pastor is so awesome.
For me, this is sad. I grew up with a Catholic mom and a Methodist father. The first Church I attended was a Catholic Church. Then we went to a Charismatic Church, after that I went to a Brethren Church and had a short experience with the Revival movement. Infact, I've never failed to hear a sermon or remark from the pastor or elders elders in the Church about why they're the right way, the better way and it doesn't end without mudslinging at other denominations, particularly Catholicism. It is by far the reason my mom has given up on attending Church anymore.
The reason I'm writing this is because Intervarisity, as a non-denominational Christian focused campus organization will surely be filled by everyone from different background of faith and theological understanding. And surely we will encounter other Christians groups who may be denominational and have other differences with us, both small and big. Just a couple of weeks ago, we affirmed our believe in the Trinity, that Jesus is really God and also fully man at the same time. This is a position not held by all the people who call themselves Christians though. In fact, I can't be sure either that everyone who was at the Bible study session held that view either. In light of this, have you ever thought about your position when you're face with inreach, whether in within AIV or between other groups on campus? Have you anticipated the challenge being a leader in a non-denominational group may bring? When there exist a conflict between the truth you're convicted of, the interest of the group and the truth the person in front of your holds, what might be our action? And most importantly, internally, in our prayers, both in private and corporately, who are we willing to pray for and what are we willing to pray for.
A certain experience I had this week though made me realize there is another kind of reaching going on here, on campus. It's what I'd call inreach. There are many churches around campus and there are many Christian focused campus organizations whose outreach sometime crosses over to inreach. This is where they reach out to believers belonging to other Christian groups or Churches. I believe their reasons are primarily comparative such as we have better activities, we're more fun, we're more friendly, we know the Bible better, out pastor is so awesome.
For me, this is sad. I grew up with a Catholic mom and a Methodist father. The first Church I attended was a Catholic Church. Then we went to a Charismatic Church, after that I went to a Brethren Church and had a short experience with the Revival movement. Infact, I've never failed to hear a sermon or remark from the pastor or elders elders in the Church about why they're the right way, the better way and it doesn't end without mudslinging at other denominations, particularly Catholicism. It is by far the reason my mom has given up on attending Church anymore.
The reason I'm writing this is because Intervarisity, as a non-denominational Christian focused campus organization will surely be filled by everyone from different background of faith and theological understanding. And surely we will encounter other Christians groups who may be denominational and have other differences with us, both small and big. Just a couple of weeks ago, we affirmed our believe in the Trinity, that Jesus is really God and also fully man at the same time. This is a position not held by all the people who call themselves Christians though. In fact, I can't be sure either that everyone who was at the Bible study session held that view either. In light of this, have you ever thought about your position when you're face with inreach, whether in within AIV or between other groups on campus? Have you anticipated the challenge being a leader in a non-denominational group may bring? When there exist a conflict between the truth you're convicted of, the interest of the group and the truth the person in front of your holds, what might be our action? And most importantly, internally, in our prayers, both in private and corporately, who are we willing to pray for and what are we willing to pray for.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Prayer Meeting: Thoughts
I have a couple thoughts after leading the prayer meeting this morning (or after whenever I post this).
8AM is early. Go figure. It's not like I'm not used to it; I get up for 8AM lab every Tuesday and Thursday. No, I don't think the tiredness gets to me until I'm in the middle of prayer trying to focus on words to pray in accordance to God's will. Which didn't happen.
I grabbed my backpack and guitar and stepped out into the rain. My thoughts as I was walking? Who will come? To be frank (and Diane knows this), since Diane was the only one I was pushing to come and she had not answered my three phone calls before I left, I was bracing myself to be strumming my guitar in the open, empty hall of the Math Atrium. Lo and behold, the only person that came was.... Diane! Thank you for coming :)
That changed things a little bit. I had forgotten to remind everyone to bring a Bible in an email for prayer meetings because it would help with the nature of how I wanted the meeting to go (but luckily Diane brought hers anyway). I had scheduled the prayer meeting to go for two hours in the morning because I knew it would be hard for people come at 8, but at the same time I wanted to leave the option open for people who had to get up early for work or class to be able to come in and be a part of the meeting. This is what I'm saying when I say, "Are we doing everything we can to make it easy for people to come?" 8AM Mark? That's not easy at all. Well simply put, I'm quite selfish and my schedule would go 8AM/10AM-9PM most weekdays if I were to schedule prayer meetings at night. Waking up at 8AM is also disciplining me for IVLI since wake up is at 7:15AM on cedar campus (everyday)... But otherwise, that is why we scheduled a second prayer meeting for Saturdays at 10AM-12PM (or 11AM-12PM) so that anyone can make it out to that (except Kelli Strong :P).
So having only Diane there meant we could discuss verses that we were reading for our QT while we were there. I started off by saying that I want to do a theme of Psalms for worship. I love the nature of the lyrics that David writes for his worship. Many times we hold back a lot of our emotions when we pray to God because we feel that we don't think it's right to ask God for such selfish requests. David thinks otherwise. One verse that I read recently was Psalm 6:5 - "Among the dead no one proclaims your name. Who praises you from the grave?" Before this verse, David sings, "Turn, O Lord, and deliver me. Save me with your unfailing love!" for God to save him from his enemies. He is basically saying, "Look God, save me from my enemies. If you want me to praise you, how can I do that if I'm dead?" I think David's nature in Psalms reflects what a believer's worship should feel like. There is an intimacy in his words, an acknowledgement of the Creator and King, and there is a closeness felt with his Savior. Although we might not be able to relate to some of his Psalms (stop me if you yourself have been attacked by neighboring nations and your enemies have closed in on you), we are still able to see how David prays and how he worships.
I have not dived too deep into Psalms before, but I plan on reading it constantly everyday (and IVLI's morning devos are in Psalms! Yuhss!). I want to explore how David prayed and how David worshipped God and I feel that using our prayer meeting to go through some Scripture is an excellent way to do it. Our worship can be done using many of Psalms' lyrics because artists today write songs that come from Psalms! Hopefully this study in Psalms during prayer meetings will be fruitful for our chapter's prayer culture.
8AM is early. Go figure. It's not like I'm not used to it; I get up for 8AM lab every Tuesday and Thursday. No, I don't think the tiredness gets to me until I'm in the middle of prayer trying to focus on words to pray in accordance to God's will. Which didn't happen.
I grabbed my backpack and guitar and stepped out into the rain. My thoughts as I was walking? Who will come? To be frank (and Diane knows this), since Diane was the only one I was pushing to come and she had not answered my three phone calls before I left, I was bracing myself to be strumming my guitar in the open, empty hall of the Math Atrium. Lo and behold, the only person that came was.... Diane! Thank you for coming :)
That changed things a little bit. I had forgotten to remind everyone to bring a Bible in an email for prayer meetings because it would help with the nature of how I wanted the meeting to go (but luckily Diane brought hers anyway). I had scheduled the prayer meeting to go for two hours in the morning because I knew it would be hard for people come at 8, but at the same time I wanted to leave the option open for people who had to get up early for work or class to be able to come in and be a part of the meeting. This is what I'm saying when I say, "Are we doing everything we can to make it easy for people to come?" 8AM Mark? That's not easy at all. Well simply put, I'm quite selfish and my schedule would go 8AM/10AM-9PM most weekdays if I were to schedule prayer meetings at night. Waking up at 8AM is also disciplining me for IVLI since wake up is at 7:15AM on cedar campus (everyday)... But otherwise, that is why we scheduled a second prayer meeting for Saturdays at 10AM-12PM (or 11AM-12PM) so that anyone can make it out to that (except Kelli Strong :P).
So having only Diane there meant we could discuss verses that we were reading for our QT while we were there. I started off by saying that I want to do a theme of Psalms for worship. I love the nature of the lyrics that David writes for his worship. Many times we hold back a lot of our emotions when we pray to God because we feel that we don't think it's right to ask God for such selfish requests. David thinks otherwise. One verse that I read recently was Psalm 6:5 - "Among the dead no one proclaims your name. Who praises you from the grave?" Before this verse, David sings, "Turn, O Lord, and deliver me. Save me with your unfailing love!" for God to save him from his enemies. He is basically saying, "Look God, save me from my enemies. If you want me to praise you, how can I do that if I'm dead?" I think David's nature in Psalms reflects what a believer's worship should feel like. There is an intimacy in his words, an acknowledgement of the Creator and King, and there is a closeness felt with his Savior. Although we might not be able to relate to some of his Psalms (stop me if you yourself have been attacked by neighboring nations and your enemies have closed in on you), we are still able to see how David prays and how he worships.
I have not dived too deep into Psalms before, but I plan on reading it constantly everyday (and IVLI's morning devos are in Psalms! Yuhss!). I want to explore how David prayed and how David worshipped God and I feel that using our prayer meeting to go through some Scripture is an excellent way to do it. Our worship can be done using many of Psalms' lyrics because artists today write songs that come from Psalms! Hopefully this study in Psalms during prayer meetings will be fruitful for our chapter's prayer culture.
David and his harp.
I plan on not leading the Saturday meetings, so you guys can lead however you want! I know I will be going through Psalms on Wednesday mornings and the praying will be pretty free, but Saturday meetings can run like this past year's DPMs. That's all I got for now....
Hope all is well!
PS. David isn't our character that we're studying. We still need to choose one. Any suggestions?
PPS. I will hopefully have selected a book by the end of memorial weekend!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Fasting - Desperate Seeking of God's Will
Ah yes...the famed topic of fasting. Let us begin!
What is fasting?
Fasting is intentionally witholding or abstaining from a certain material, usually food. Fasting serves many purposes, many of which we will look at through examples in the Bible:
-Fasting in sorrow. Because you are extremely grieved for other people or for a particular situation, you fast because you are mourning and you desire for God to take away the reason for that sorrow. Nehemiah 1:4
-Fasting in desperation. When David's son was on the sickbed, David fasted for three days in hopes of changing God's will to save his son's life. We see here that fasting is a way to communicate to God our desperation for His power to work. 2 Samuel 12:16-17
-Fasting in preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Matthew 9:13-17. Mourning = fasting = missing Jesus' Presence. How much would the disciples miss the presence of Jesus after He ascended?
-Fasting for God's discernment. Acts 14:23
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness"
- 2 Corinthians 12:9
When we fast, we are weak. No food = no energy. Our physical state is weakened because there is no physical energy to sustain us. We desire for God's power to be fully exemplified and glorified in our lives; therefore, we desire to set ourselves in that posture of weakness. With a lifestyle of fasting, we are posturing our lives to be weak so that God's power is made perfect in our life. This is why we choose to live a lifestyle of fasting; so God's power is constantly being perfected in our lives. This is also why fasting transforms the heart, for if God's power is constantly working in your life, over time, your heart will be like steel, hardened and willing to give up that which increases the Father in our lives; your spirit strong with the nearness that God brings when you distance yourself from physical, worldly things.
In your moments of fasting, you don't just abstain from food and go about your day. Whenever a character in the Bible is fasting, it is always coupled with prayer. What is about fasting that intensifies the request that we make to God? Why was it that David fasted and prayed instead of just praying to God that God would save his son? As I mentioned earlier in the bullet about "fasting in desperation", David fasted so that God could see his desperation for His power to be at work. When David's son passes away, David gets up and goes and starts eating again (2 Samuel 12:18-22). I love David's mindset here because it really depicts his desperation; he did everything he could to try and persuade God's will. In the same way, when we have that prayer request that we so desperately want answered, do we, as individuals or as a fellowship, do everything on our side to allow God's power to work? How badly do we want our prayers to be answered? Are we desperate for God hand to work?
Another thing to note is fasting for God's discernment as we see in Acts 14:23. I feel like fasting is our way to try and listen to God's will and to try and sense how His Spirit is trying to move and work in our lives. More on heightened spirituality in physical weakness in two paragraphs.
In our posture of weakness, there is something that happens behind what the eye can see. Something about weakening the physical state of your body strengthens the spiritual state of your mind. Wes Martin, a pastor at IHOP, spoke about the "Great Exchange". When we fast, we are weak and in that state of physical distress, our spirit is crying out to our Father for sustenance. You are saying, "God I will abstain from eating food, in order so that I free up time to spend more time with you, in order so that your power can be perfected in me, and in order for you to transform me into a more humble and willing servant." Truly, I say to you all, when you fast and you pray, over time, you will, indeed, develop a closeness with God. I am actually not one to really say if that's true; that came from Wes Martin lol. He says, "Don't observe the fruits of fasting until a decade later." Fasting is a trial of patience, patience for God's power to transform you over time; it's a lifelong process.
Here is just a thought: When Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, He became extremely weak, but became spiritually strong and sound. Jesus fasts while He is in the wild and then He is tempted by Satan, but refuses Satan's offer for all the glories of the world. There is some implication here that Jesus' fasting heightened His spiritual sensation of God's will (I mean, I know He's God, but He is like-minded with God while He is being tempted) to resist Satan. Thoughts.
Here is the link for the IHOP sermon on fasting. When you get to the website, click on the "Messages" tab and scroll down to the message titled, "The Great Exchange - Wes Martin", dated 12/30/10:
Here is the link for the IHOP sermon on fasting. When you get to the website, click on the "Messages" tab and scroll down to the message titled, "The Great Exchange - Wes Martin", dated 12/30/10:
http://www.ihop.org/Publisher/Article.aspx?ID=1000098570
*there are other sermons, too, if you want to check them out. They are interesting, if not thought-provoking, so I encourage you to check them out when you have time.
Fasting, I believe, also changes your heart to be more gracious. Primarily of food, of course, but I am sure over time, you will develop a heart of acknowledging the grace of God. This is why fasting works; we don't only eat food for sustenance, but we eat because it is GOOD. And when you sit down to break fast and you're sitting there with your meal waiting in front of you and pray a prayer of thanksgiving to God, you PRAY a prayer of thanksgiving to God. Fasting creates a genuine spirit of graciousness. Ever wonder why God calls us in Phillipians 4:6 to do "everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving"? After fasting, thanksgiving seems to overflow into all parts of your life.
Another principle of fasting is brought up in Matthew 6:16-18. Don't complain when you fast. Don't show it while you're doing it. Why? For all the reasons I stated above. You would completely contradict the reason why you're fasting in the first place. Besides, God promises a reward in heaven for the things you do in secret (which is great, but I think the former reason is more important for a better mindset).
One other point that many have used Matthew 6:16 for. They interpret "When you fast" as a command; Jesus gives you no choice, it is implied that you are already living a lifestyle of fasting. Of course, while I say it's a command, we know that there are people with limitations that exclude them from needing to fast (people with eating disorders and pregnancy I should think, are two that come to mind). And the whole purpose of this blog post anyways is to get all the reasons for why we should be fasting down in writing.
And what of corporate fasts? What does fasting corporately accomplish? I believe it aligns with why we pray corporately: when two or more gather and bring their request to God, God will answer that prayer (Matthew 18:19-20). In the same light, when two more gather and desperately bring their requests to God, God will definitely answer that prayer. And simply put, I believe fasting corporately brings the community together in a God-centered way. We, as a fellowship, are enduring this physical hardship together and because no meals free up time to pray, we would pray together (to pray for the topic of why we are fasting). And that I believe, is solid reason enough to fast corporately.
And lastly, fasting for preparation for the return of Jesus, the Messiah. I do not know too much of the Second Coming (personally, I feel like I haven't looked into it enough to make any claims or to take any stance yet), but what I do know for sure is that Jesus is returning and we better not only ready ourselves, but also intercede that the rest of the world be ready also. Wes Martin delves deeper into the Word, interpreting Matthew 9:13-17. Jesus says himself that His disciples will begin fasting when He leaves them. Martin associates that with the longing and mourning for the absence of Jesus' presence. He says, "When your spouse passes away, or a family member, or close friend passes away, you mourn because you long for their presence; you miss their presence." And so he compares that to Jesus' statement of the disciples mourning for His presence when He leaves (described in the bridegroom comparison in v.15). We fast because we long for Jesus' presence.
So where does this leave us? Right now, I encourage all of you to pick ONE day of the week to fast. I understand it's a jump to go from eating every meal to missing one whole day of the week. But I believe we can do it, and not only just do it, but do it good and do it until it merges with our lifestyle. Personally, I feel like missing one day of eating is easier to do in college because our sleep/eating schedules are sorta screwed up so I hope that is some encouragement to you.
And for the chapter? I had mentioned during CFW that I wanted to do corporate fasting during (or up until) NSO. We have several ways we can do this. We can pick a week and have everyone fast one meal on each of those days (or fast all day and eat when the sun goes down) and be in constant prayer as a chapter. We could also have a schedule and have people sign up for one day out of like 40 days to fast and pray for NSO (Caleb's idea). That way, there is at least one person in the chapter fasting and praying for NSO during the span of 40 days. Comment and let's discuss what you think!
That's all I have for fasting. You're a champ for reading this entire blogpost. I was going to post pictures of food, but dangling food in front of people fasting is like a stumbling block. We don't do that to each other :) And I'm just keepin' this post reverent and righteously real haha.
Thanks for reading!
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