Cultivating Habits of Prayer and Fasting
Transcript
All right, so some practical suggestions here on cultivating habits of prayer. Hopefully you're discussions are already going in that direction, ours was over here.
We'll start off with three categories of prayer. There's three texts, three sets of realities in the Bible relating to prayer: prayer in secret (so personal prayer), prayer — call it with constancy or there's the pray without ceasing passages, and then you've got the reality of praying with company.
So you can see how we're going from God speaking first, our prayer lives are in response to His word, and our prayer lives are moving us toward a corporate dynamic. An essential aspect is the private nature before God. And prayer life should be moving us toward a collective corporate nature in the life of the church. So prayer in secret first.
Prayer in secret (personal prayer)
Jesus, in Matthew 6,
“When you pray…”
Not a ‘if’ and here he's not talking about all prayer. He's not saying only pray in secret. But when you have your personal prayer, secret prayer…
“…you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and the street corners so that they may be seen by others. [This prayer sure is a waste of time unless somebody sees me doing it and thinks well of me for it.] Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
And the very center and bottom and height of this reward is with himself. You come into the secret place, into the prayer closet, into that private prayer to seek him. That's the great purpose of prayer. Him as the joy of your gladness.
Here’s some practicals for secret prayer. So I mentioned this earlier — having heard God first in his Word, pray in light of his work. There's a little summary. Begin with Bible, move over to the meditation, polish with prayer. Once you have meditated on a verse or passage or biblical concept for a few moments, turn it to prayer.
First, pray in the theme of how God's been speaking to you by His Spirit through the Word. Rather than pivoting to lists, pray through the text you've meditated on. Turn its concepts, its promises, its warnings into prayers for yourself, your spouse, your family, your church, your friends, coworkers, neighbors, the nations.
Take God's leading in meditation as his word to you on that day, an invitation to pray to him in light of how he's speaking in his word.
Second, come with manly focus and heavenly brevity. And here's the warning: Beware of empty phrases and overlong prayers. Now let me just say there's two instances of Jesus praying late into the night — Gethsemane and praying all night in taking his disciples.
There is a place in special time for extended prayer that would not be counted as overlong. But we also need to take Jesus’s words here seriously. This is the last thing he says before the Lord's Prayer, it’s really significant. This is the intro to the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6,
“When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do for they think they'll be heard for their many words…”
If we think we’ll be heard for many words, that is a natural and sub-Christian, at best, instinct. That is as an unbelieving instinct. It's a pagan instinct to think that many words would earn the ear of our God. His Son earned his ear for us, not our many words.
“…Do not be like them [Jesus says] for your Father knows what you need before you ask him, pray then like this.”
And then he prays 50 words. That's it. That's the Lord's Prayer. 50 words. That doesn't mean that all of our prayers should be only 50 words. I mean, honestly, my mind is so often clouded and unclear that I rarely pray 50 words or less. But there are the two word prayers of “God help”. There's those prayers as well. But it's important for us to get rid of the pagan instinct that overlong prayers are earning his ear for us. That may be a temptation for some, I don't assume it’s a temptation for all. So I try to balance that here by mentioning Colossians 4:12. I don't think Epaphrus, as Paul talks about Epaphrus in Colossians 4:12, is doing something unholy or un-Christian.
Right? So remember heavenly brevity and in the context of there are times of struggle in prayer. Prayer is this balance of intimacy with God, communing with him, enjoying him, and then struggling, wrestling. Don't let me go until you bless me. So this is Epaphrus,
“Epaphrus who is one of you a servant of Jesus Christ greets you always struggling on your behalf in his prayers…”
He loved the Colossians and he's there with Paul and Paul can tell you are on his heart.
“…struggling on your behalf in his prayers that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.”
So ‘heavenly brevity’ but don't let yourself think that that means there aren't times to struggle, to wrestle, to grapple — that's manly, to grapple.
Lead with adoration and confession. It can be so easy to default into asking for things. Start by praising God, adoring him. Here's how Jesus starts the Lord’s Prayer.
“Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name.”
Let your name be sanctified. Let your name be made much of. Let your name be glorified. Here's how they pray in Acts 4, persecution has come and they hear about it so they lift up their voices together and they say, “
Sovereign Lord”
I would think in this in this situation, it would just be ‘“God save us from persecution”, but it's Sovereign Lord — adoration.
“…who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them [he’s the God of Creation] who through the mouth of our Father, David your servant said by the Holy Spirit…”
So they're rehearsing God's sovereignty over all creation. They're rehearsing that God revealed himself through David by the Holy Spirit. They're going back and they're working through Scripture as well.
Prayer to the Sovereign is not a resignation of agency, but it's a masculine recognition of reality and a manly positioning of ourselves for godly action.
This is not passivity to approach the Sovereign and adore him, but to sink our our lives up with reality and position ourselves in prayerful dependance for God honoring and truly effective and fruitful action with our lives. And when we begin with adoration and with Scripture like the Acts 4 prayer —they begin with adoration, they quote from Scripture — it lifts our prayers into a different register, they become more spiritual, they become more sanctified. It's not just this instinctive, kind of natural reaction for “comfort please, quick comfort, give me the easiest thing,” but lift the prayers into a register of “I want what's best for my long term joy, what's best for God's glory.” So this is how they pray.
They pray for boldness. They pray for corporate manfulness, not immediate relief in Acts 4,
“…and now Lord, look upon their threats and grant your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the Word of God with boldness.”
So reminder here about A.C.T.S. — to adore Him, confess our sin in light of His Holiness — His Highness, His Majesty, His glory, like Isaiah 6, confess our sin — thank him for His grace, and then yes, we ask him for things in prayer.
Number three, seek to pray spiritual prayers. I'm going to shorten some of these for us to finish up and be able to say something about fasting. And I can shorten this one because we just went through Philippians 1:9-11. Colossians 1 is another example how Paul prays for spiritual things. He's not mainly focusing on changes in circumstances, but he's praying spiritual prayers about God making us the kind of person that is spiritually mature. God changing, shaping, forming our minds and hearts to be the kind of persons that honor him from the heart.
Fourth, pray out loud or in writing to formulate and finish your thoughts. This can be helpful in keeping some kind of journal. I have like this book I take around with me. Sometimes I'll write prayers in this. It can be helpful just to write it out, get it on paper. Sometimes in my spirit of prayer my mind doesn't go all the way to completing the thoughts, to actually pray without doing some writing or …this is kind of a recent thing for me… to do personal prayer out loud.
My kids will be upstairs asleep, I can say it out loud in a way that doesn't wake everybody up. Or if the kids are at school and I got the house to myself. This is kind of a new practice for me. Just praying out loud, filling the space. It helps me articulate the words that I want to speak to God instead of just having them go on quietly and not finishing my thoughts in my head.
Posture is an opportunity — uplifted hands, on your knees — Think about your posture in prayer. That can be an opportunity to express your dependance. I think the principle here in 1 Corinthians 14 about having a fruitful mind in articulating our prayers.
Fifth then, in prayer manfully feel the weight of your burdens. So own them, say them, rehearse them and then roll them on to the broad shoulders of God. This is like the pattern of prayer. Feel the burden, roll it on to him — casting your anxieties on him because he cares for you — knowing his care, rehearsing that for us in Christ and then casting anxieties onto him.
You want a good manful passage on prayer? Do the verses that follow. This is verses 8 to 11. Linger there.
Praying with constancy, without ceasing
Praying with constancy — this the text with “praying without ceasing.”
Be constant in prayer, continue in prayer, praying at all times in the Spirit.
I don't think that means you just stay on your knees all day. I think it means that you continue to carry a spirit of prayer and return — cultivate that habit of returning in prayer, there's moments in the car, moments in line. What if instead of with every spare moment, instead of looking here, checking here — what if we developed a habit of going Godward in those spare moments and take those moments for prayer?
Oh man, I was really excited to talk about Nehemiah and I don't think there's time for Nehemiah. I'm going to move past him and finish up. If you want to see a really manful prayer, Nehemiah 1 and 2 where he prays, he takes action. He prays in the midst of a conversation with the most powerful person in the world, Artaxerxes. God grants his request. Nehemiah is a great man of action and a man of prayer.
Praying with company (corporate prayer)
Praying with company, praying with brothers. This is the high point of prayer. Not that we would pray with others and not privately, but that when you coordinate with others, you've got to coordinate schedules, you've got to be in the same space. Jesus prays with his disciples and others, the early church prayed together. It’s something that we should make regular in our lives with our families, in our community groups, life groups, other gatherings, some kind of regularity of prayer with others. And a great way to proceed is to start with Scripture. What's God's saying in His word? Limit the share time. You can turn the requests Godward in prayer. Encourage focus in the prayers. And then as you pray in a corporate gathering, it is appropriate to keep in mind the others. It doesn't have to be this me and God prayer. It can be an us. You can pray in terms of we. So God loves that, He approves of us being conscious of the others, not trying to show off for them, but keep them in mind in making our prayers go Godward.
All right. I got to finish up with with fasting here. Here's a little taste of fasting as we close. This is a new effort, to get at fasting from a different angle.
First, feasting. Jesus assumed that his followers would feast. He was the first century Jew. The nation's life turned on annual. Jesus participated in other feasts like Levi's Great Feast and the Wedding Feast of Cana where he enhanced the feast by turning water to wine. In his parables, Jesus compared his kingdom to such feasts.
Unlike his cousin John who was known for abstaining, Jesus came eating and drinking and was slandered as a glutton and drunkard. So Jesus says in Luke 14,
“When you give a feast [he’s assuming this is part of human life. It would be a part of life for his followers.] invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
His caution:
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, who feasted sumptuously every day.”
You know what that sounds like? Modern life. “Feasted sumptuously every day.” It doesn't go well for him here.
“At his gates was a poor man named Lazarus. He desired to be fed what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and looked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham side. And the rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off.”
So not a good association here with sumptuous feasting on a daily basis. But let's put that in perspective biblically…
Jesus has us pray for daily bread. Let’s call it the manful path from prayer to action. While Jesus commends and cautions both feasting and fasting and assumes his followers will do both, His model prayer for his disciples begins with every day moderation,
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
And 1 Timothy speaks of foods that God created to be received with Thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth — Christians.
“For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with Thanksgiving, for it's made holy by the Word of God in prayer.”
Made holy by the Word of God in prayer. We're rehearsing… what has God said about the food He's giving us as a gift from his hand and then we’re praying and thanking him for it. Responding to what he's revealed, there's a kind of sanctifying of our daily bread. So how does that then relate to fasting?
So I'm putting fasting as one of three categories.
1) There is daily bread — there's the basic moderation of everyday life.
2) Then there are times for feasts and feasts are different than the everyday habits.
3) And then there's fasting on the other side, which is different than everyday habits.
At no place in all the 13 letters does Paul command Christians to fast. Neither does Peter or John or any other book in the New Testament. And yet, for 2000 years Christians have fasted. One expression, among others, of healthy, vibrant Christians and churches has been the practice of fasting. However much it may seem to be a lost art today, fasting has endured for two millennia as a means of Christ’s ongoing grace for his church. Why then, if Christians are not commanded to fast, do we still fast now?
Well Jesus said, “When you fast,” right? Jesus fasted himself for 40 days, and the Matthew four passage says nothing about him going without water. I assume that Matthew 4 is a fully human fast. I don't think there's anything supernatural about it. I think a human can go that long without food, we're just out of shape for it. Moses’s fast without water must have been supernatural. I don't think you can do 40 days without water. You can actually do 40. Some people can — with training. Matthew 6,
“When you fast [so Jesus practiced fasting] do not look gloomy like the hypocrites for they disfigured their faces that their fasting maybe seen by others [that’s right there with prayer] Truly, I say to you they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face that you're fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who sees in secret, and your Father who sees in secret, will reward you.”
Matthew 9, Jesus said to them,
“Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bride gets taken away, and then they will fast.”
So he says to Christians, when you fast and he talks about us as they will fast. The early Christians fasted. So you see this play out in the Book of Acts, and then Jesus gives us this caution that we're going to close with here.
Luke 18,
“The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you that I’m not like other men, extortions, unjust adulterers or even like this tax collector, I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all I get. But the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breath, saying, ‘God be merciful to me, a sinner.’ I tell you, this man [tax collector] went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
So fasting that seeks to exalt self is opposed to God, but fasting as an expression of self humbling before God is the kind of fasting that pleases him and that he loves to exalt.
So an encouragement here about training yourself as men — I think I hesitate to do this in a mixed gathering, but I take the risk more with men — Train yourselves for metabolic flexibility just to make fasting a possibility in your life.
Our bodies may be far more resilient than we've learned to expect and with some thoughtful conditioning they can become even more so ready to flex for both fasting and feasting — to both enjoy occasions of abundance and endure times of famine. We can train ourselves to go longer without food than we assume.
This is from a Book by Jay Richards (he's a Catholic),
“God fitted the human form to thrive in a host of different ecosystems and diets, as we would expect of a Creator who called us to multiply and fill the whole earth.”
That’s pretty good. Richards advocates what he calls a fasting lifestyle in which we condition ourselves over time to be metabolically flexible with less thoughtless, everyday feasting and more regular fasts beginning with a meal, then two, then working up to a few days.
I must tell you, I'm kind of right in here, guys. I haven't worked up to a few days. I sure would like to get there, but I want to be honest with you, I'm not there.
“Many of us, some medical conditions notwithstanding, can train our stomachs and souls to be like the Apostle [in Philippians] who said, ‘I have learned in whatever situation to be content. I know how to be brought low. I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
And if you want more on fasting — we’ve got some more at DesiringGod.org on fasting.
Last discussion then before we sing a song to close together.
Discussion
1) Evaluate your present experience of prayer. What habits are working well and what's not?
2) How do you hope to grow as a man of prayer and action?
3) And what one takeaway from this morning do you hope to implement?
