How to PREPARE for Prayer & Fasting
Twice a year we come together for a week of prayer and fasting. We do this for a number of reasons which could be best summed up by our conviction that prayer is a wonderful gift to enjoy and a mighty weapon to wield.
If this is true - and the teaching of the Bible is that it most certainly is - then it does beg a question: why do so many Christians find prayer so difficult, confusing and frustrating? Why will some nod in assent to the truths of prayer’s gift and power and yet never come to a church prayer meeting? Why do screens, sleep and snacks seem to win the day so often? In my message on Sunday I outlined four battles to win in order to enjoy the gift and wield the weapon. Why not pray through them and ask the Holy Spirit to be your Counsellor and Helper as we approach what could be a wonderful week of prayer and fasting?
Distraction
Whilst her sister, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening to his every word, Luke tells us that ‘Martha was distracted with much serving’ (Luke 10:40). When Martha complains to Jesus that she could do with a little help from her sister, Jesus replies “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
We live in the most distractible age in history. Consider just one example: a recent Guardian article suggests we, on average, check our phones every 12 minutes and as a result it has ‘eroded our ability to concentrate’. We know that solitude, silence, prayer, extended time listening to God and studying the Bible, focused conversation with a fellow believer is the staple diet of a Christian’s joy and health. I would suggest that unless you have a clear policy in your home for how you will control - rather than be controlled by - technology you will struggle to develop deep, joyful and fruitful time with Jesus: ‘the one thing that is necessary’. Fasting from food - which we often use to distract and medicate ourselves - is also a wonderful way to focus us in on the wonder of God.
Disappointment
Imagine the disappointment Jauiris would have felt when after Jesus stopped to listen to and heal an older woman in Luke 8, he was told that it was too late - his daughter had died and the journey he was bringing Jesus on was now pointless. “Why did you stop?” Jairus must have thought. “She wasn’t dying and nor was she a little girl - my little girl!” Jesus neither apologises nor explains but simply says, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well” (v50). In that moment, Jairus had a choice: allow crushing disappointment to overwhelm him or give up his right to understand and press on in faith that perhaps Jesus could still answer his prayer. If disappointment had won, the journey would have stopped right there and perhaps Jairus would never have seen Jesus reach down into death and pull his precious daughter back into life. Don’t let your faith journey with Jesus stop due to disappointment. Be real, tell him (just as the Psalmists do so often) and let him speak fresh faith into your heart too.
Dependency (lack of)
For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. (2 Cor 1:8-11)
We live in such a self reliant age and part of the world. We can allow comfort and competency to mask the reality that we are dependent on God for everything, down to the next breath we take. Yet, one of the lessons of the pandemic is surely that as brilliant as mankind has become we are ultimately not in control. And when we humble ourselves and admit that, God loves to come close. It is in our weakness that God comes in power (2 Cor 12:9). Psa 138:6 says that For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar. Fostering an attitude of humility draws a gracious response from God in which he comes towards us.
We don’t need to engineer the kind of suffering Paul endured to do this (though if it comes we are equipped to find meaning in it). We can foster humble dependency simply by learning to pray continually about the smallest of things: thanking, praising and asking God as we go through the seemingly mundane and trivial. And as we pray more and more, so we capture God’s heart for the things he particularly cares about, like salvation and sickness for example: things that we of course we are utterly dependant on God to attend to.
Disbelief
Just as God draws away from the haughty (or opposes the proud - James 4:6) so he is drawn towards the humble, the desperate and the lowly. Indeed, as much as Christ is angered by haughty, pretend religiosity he is wonderfully drawn towards stumbling, uncertain, authentic faith. If we’re honest, we’ve all wondered whether our prayers are actually heard by God and whether they will make any difference whatsoever. Come on, admit it! We all can identify with the Father of the demon possessed boy who exclaims to Jesus, ‘‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” ( Mark 9:24). But be encouraged: Jesus loves his messy but honest mixture of faith, doubt and desperation and responds not with a rebuke to ‘have more faith’ but with grace and power, healing the boy.
So, which of these ‘Ds’ does the Holy Spirit want to highlight to you as we go into our week of prayer and fasting? Where does he want to work, to heal, to bless and to restore faith?