Change (12/30/03)

With the new year just around the corner, I thought "change" to be an appropriate topic for this week. New Year's resolutions are about to be made. Many people will be vowing to change things they don't like about themselves. As Christians, we are plugged into the God of the universe. The ultimate author of change in our lives and the one place to turn to when we know change is needed. The problem is that we don't always recognize or we don't always want to admit when change is needed. It takes us out of our comfort zone or it may be all about getting rid of a sin that we aren't ready to admit to.

So this week we are praying the following:
1. That we will rely on God to help us identify the change that's needed in our lives.
2. Once the change is identified, that we embrace the need for the change and get out of the way of God's plan.
3. That as we go through the change, we rely on God to get us through and keep us changed. It's not about self will-power.

Have a great week and a great fast.
Your brother,
Bob

Vacuum Cleaner (12/16/03)

As I get older, I find that without fail, I have to make at least one trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I am in the habit of walking over to the bathroom in the relative darkness of the house to keep me from waking up too much. If I turn on lights, I'll have trouble falling back to sleep when I get back to bed. This is where the vacuum cleaner comes in. About a month ago, after some cleaning, we left our old upright vacuum cleaner sitting in the upstairs hall. It's important to know that this hall is between our bedroom and the bathroom. As such, on several occasions, I accidentally kicked the vacuum cleaner during my trip to the bathroom. Embarrassing as it may sound, There were even some trips where I kicked it both times I passed it. This went on for at least a week and a half before I decided to put the vacuum away one morning. However, it still pops into my head on my nightly trip.

So what does this have to do with a prayer topic? Well, reflecting on this experience brings Psalm 119:105 to mind "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path". We all have "vacuum cleaners" in our path. Your "vacuum cleaner" may be lust, or greed, or envy, or pride, or any number of temptations or weaknesses. You can stay in the dark of self-comfort and self-interest and continue to blunder into them (perhaps even twice the same night :). Or, you can turn on the light of God's word, wake up to the power of relying on him, and recognize those "vacuum cleaners" before you kick them. God may even have it planned for you to take hold of that "vacuum cleaner", turn it around, and do some good with it.

To summarize, we are praying that God fills us with the desire to read his word, listen to what it says, and show others how to do the same.

Have a great week and a great fast.
Your brother,
Bob

Turning it over to God (10/13/03)

I frequently ask new people if they'd like to join this fasting and prayer group. As you can guess, they frequently answer "no". The top excuse I hear goes something like "I don't do so good giving up food" or "I can't concentrate at work on an empty stomach" or "I work in construction and not eating could be dangerous". Perhaps we should expand what we think of when we hear the word "fast". As Christians, fasting is the act of practicing self-denial in an effort to strengthen our reliance on God through prayer. This self-denial does not have to be food. It could be coffee, television, spending money, or anything else that would personally remind us to frequently turn to prayer. So, next time someone is giving you that "food" excuse, give them the alternatives.

Does this mean we should be able to grow our numbers rapidly? The main excuse no longer holds water. Should we even be trying to grow this list? What's it matter? Why get more people started fasting? In a moment of clarity last week, one possible answer came to me - the way we pray when we are fasting starts us down the path of truly turning things over to God. It helps to teach us when and how to pray. Sure, many of us have quiet time set aside in our daily schedule. Our typical quiet time involves prayer, bible reading and reflection. The trap we can fall into is letting it be the only prayer time in our day. As satan attacks us throughout the day, instant prayer response is needed to nip him in the bud. Fasting trains us for this instant prayer response. Fasting is rehearsing our prayer response with a benign temptation such as food so that we turn to prayer immediately for the malignant temptations (greed, envy, lust, etc.). It's like prayer aerobics. We're being trained to turn to God instead of ourselves.
So basically, this week we are praying for our fast. We're praying that the fast teaches us what it's supposed to teach us. Let's also pray that we can get more people "exercising" along with us.

Have a great week and a great fast.
Your brother,
Bob