Faith, Feasting and Fasting in 2010

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:15 – 17

We covered this text from John’s first letter on the last Sunday of 2009 and it formed the perfect transition into the new year. January is a good time to reflect and resolve: in this case, we may want to reflect on our relationship to the world and resolve to love it less and love God more. I distilled this into three simple (not necessarily easy) steps we can take in the right direction:

• Faith
• Feast
• Fast

We begin in faith, affirming along with Paul the apostle, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20) We don’t want to embark on yet another project of self-reformation. Rather, we put our faith in Jesus, offer ourselves up as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1&2) and see that faith worked out in our lives.

Second, we want to feast on Jesus and His words. That means time in the Bible, prayer and meditation on the texts and truths we find there. If you have a hard time blocking out time or sitting still for very long, you may want to follow a one-year Bible reading plan to help you along. This is one I recommend.

Finally, we want to fast from the world. God has blessed us in so many ways, yet sometimes we can overdo even a good thing like food, leisure or rest and turn it into a worldly desire. So, fasting is an effective way to discipline yourself and put the things of this life into their proper place. Jesus said, “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” (Matthew 9:14 & 15) We are in the time of fasting, yet many of us don’t know when, how or what to fast from. Actually, the Bible doesn’t talk much about the “how to” of fasting, so many of us don’t fast at all. That’s a shame and, if you find yourself a bit confused or hesitant to fast for that reason, I recommend you look for discussions of fasting online or pick up this book by John Piper, A Hunger For God. It’s one of the best I’ve found on the subject of fasting and prayer.