Giving, Fasting and Praying Prompting a Rhythm of Grace.
Good Morning Friends,
Pope Francis was visibly moved when he met on Thursday with Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman who refused to recant her Christian faith even as a death sentence loomed over her head. Ibrahim was sentenced to death for apostasy in May because she married an American-Sudanese Christian man. Moreover, she was due to receive 100 lashes for adultery, since Sudan never recognized her 2011 marriage as legal. The freeing event and overturning of the ruling occurred during the last week of Ramadan when Muslims all over the world fast. Muslims finish eating and drinking before sunrise and break their fast only after the sun sets during Ramadan. Millions do this for about the entire month. There are several religious benefits for fasting. Jews and Christians have a long history of fasting as well. There are potential health benefits for just about anybody if it is done properly. I wonder whether Meriam Ibrahim benefited during Ramadan because of a technicality of her case or because God used this time of Giving, Fasting and Praying Prompting a Rhythm of Grace.
Scripture: Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’ Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
Isaiah 58:1-10 (NRSV)
“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6:16-18 (NRSV)
Message: There is a false and a true way to worship. There is a right and wrong way to fast. We can do with a little less. The message is clear. We can experience the pure joy of living in the kindness and peace of giving just a little bit more and taking just a little bit less. Moses the lawgiver, King David, Elijah the prophet, Queen Esther, the prophet Daniel, Anna the prophetess, the Apostle Paul, and Jesus Christ. All of these people in Scripture have fasting in common. They practiced a spiritual discipline that we have largely come away from in modern times. I am not sure why. Maybe people think it is old fashioned. Perhaps it has a bad reputation. Perhaps we just like to eat three square meals a day with snacks in between. I am not sure. Still fasting was an important part of the lives of heroes of the Bible and maybe it should be a more important part of ours. Jesus instructs us in the proper way when, not if, we fast. Maybe fasting is not a commandment but it does have a purpose and a process. When we fast that we set an objective, make a commitment and prepare ourselves spiritually as an act of repentance. Before fasting we need to prepare ourselves physically consulting our doctors for reasonable precautions. When we fast we need to put ourselves on a fasting schedule setting ample time to be alone with God, listening for our Lord’s leading and reinforcing the time with intakes of fluids and juices. When we end our fasting it needs to be gradual not suddenly to that we retain a new rhythm of grace in our daily lives.
Pray we understand the proper way to fast. Pray we realize it is not so much a corporate activity as a personal one…something between each of us and God. Pray we not advertise our fasting. Pray we focus on getting closer to God. Pray we experience the connection between prayer, giving and fasting. Pray we realize that the entire time of fasting is meant to be a time of prayer. Pray we cease our strivings in order to fast, to pray, to rest, allowing God to restore rhythms that we are meant to enjoy. Pray these new rhythms reflect God’s creative hand, rhythms that allow us to feel more alive even if we appear to do less. Pray that our giving, fasting and praying converge to restore the texture and pace to our lives as a cushion us against the forces that grind away at our souls.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 