Tuesday, August 10, 2010

August 15th - A Day of Prayer and Fasting

This Sunday (August 15th) the Vintage worship gatherings are going to be a little different than normal. We are going to spend our hour in prayer and singing. This coming Sunday is going to be devoted to uniting in prayer as we listen to Jesus and do what He says.


The true church lives and moves and has its being in prayer.” --Leonard Ravenhill


Our lives are so busy with constraints and obligations for work, family, school, etc. When you think about your daily “To Do” List, what is #1? If you are honest with yourself I think you would agree that your prayer life and communion with God commonly falls dead last on the list. It’s just what happens when life gets crazy. However, as Christians our availability to God should be the highest priority. Sometimes in order for us to spend time in prayer, we must cut something else out in order to make ourselves available. Our Vintage family has been extremely busy over the last year and we believe that God has even greater things in store for us in the coming months. If we aren’t careful we could become so busy for Jesus that we actually forget about Jesus. So this Sunday, as we gather we are going to pause, breathe, reflect, sit…pray. Our desire to be with God is like David’s in Psalm 65:4 and Psalm 27:4

As part of this day of prayer we are also encouraging everyone to fast on Sunday. Fasting is the spiritual discipline of abstaining from some activity in order to devote oneself wholly to prayer and seeking God. The abstinence can be from food, TV, video games, etc. During a fast a person makes himself or herself more available to God, which means that the time that would be spent partaking in a certain activity is instead spent with God. Biblical fasting must be partnered with prayer, because without prayer there is no spiritual value; you would just be starving yourself. This is probably a great dieting plan but not a good spiritual plan.


In experiences of fasting we are not so much abstaining from food as we are feasting on the word of God. Fasting is feasting!” --Richard Foster


As a family we are going to participate in a normal fast from food for the entire Sunday. The first few hours will be fascinating physically, but more importantly our focus is going to be on the inner attitude of the heart. Continue to perform regular duties of the day while inwardly you will be in prayer, confession, intercession, adoration and worship.

A Message from David Platt on Prayer and Fasting - Give it a listen if you have a couple of minutes.

The theology of fasting, then, is a theology of priorities in which believers are given the opportunity to express themselves in an undivided and intensive devotion to the Lord and to the concerns of the spiritual life.” --Eugene Merrill


See you on Sunday!

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