“Deep Connection”
John 15:7-11
This week I read an article by Medical News Today about the health effects of loneliness. Quoting the article, it states that “there is evidence that the risk of developing and dying from heart disease can depend on the strength of one's social network of friends and family…”
Warren Clark is a senior analyst with Housing, Family and Social Statistics Division, Statistics Canada. He prepared a survey on Canadian Social Trends. In an age of high-tech communication Clark reveals how we are “terminally in touch…yet many people live alone.” Families have decreased from 4 to 2.6 members but houses are larger, from 5 to 6 rooms. We want private bathrooms and private space. The age of people sitting in the same room and being in meaningful activity and relationship is a lost gift of healthy social interaction. On average we spend six hours alone every day.
I think these growing trends reflect a parallel reality in our journey with God. There are more churches, more Christian literature, and more blackberry and iPod apps; more Bible reading-plans, more social networks for podcasts and simulcasts than was dreamed possible a few years ago. Yet the stories of loneliness and isolation from God are staggering and are becoming as common as cable television and fast-food dinners.
Obviously the way to address loneliness is social engagement and relationship-building. Likewise when we feel lonely or isolated from God we need to work on that relationship to correct the problem. The tools that are very important to help us toward abundant living and deal with our need for Deep Connection with God are PRAYER and FASTING.
Prayer and Fasting is often viewed as one item with two parts, kind of like “fish and chips”, understanding the relationship of “pride and joy” or keeping things under “lock and key”. But prayer and fasting is not an “item” in all cases. I found eight Bible passages where they work together (1 Ki 21:9; Da 9:3; Ps 35:13; Lu 2:37; Mt 17:21; Mr 9:29; Ac 13:3; 1 Co 7:5) while not fewer than twenty-one passages where fasting is a solo topic and prayer is not part of the equation.
So let’s look at them separately while trying to understand their relationship in our quest for God.
1. PRAYER – The key to connection
If there is any hope to deep connection with God, it will come as a result of prayer.
I cannot offer anything new on prayer. There is more than enough information on the subject. So, the best place to review prayer is to turn to the Bible’s teachings about prayer and the forms that prayer can have. I will not be talking about how we should pray, when we should prayer or how often we should pray. I simply want to explore what the Bible says about prayer and leave it with you to listen for God’s voice as he speaks into your heart and tells you what you ought to do with the information you receive because the approach to prayer is as different as our personalities.
Among the lessons we learn about prayer in the Bible we learn that prayer is a means of articulating our thoughts to God. Solomon, the son of King David, did so when he finished building the Temple of Yahweh (Name for God in the Hebrew Bible). The story is recorded in 2 Chronicles 6:12-42. Solomon prayed how he expected God to deliver on his promise to his father David that someone from the family line would always sit on the throne of Israel. He spoke of the mystery of understanding how God can inhabit the Temple when the universe cannot contain Him! He asks for mercy, for forgiveness and for deliverance for God’s people; he articulates his desire that, whenever the people sin, or there is famine, or there are invaders, that when the people come to the Temple in repentance and confession, or seeking help in tough times, God would pay attention and answer prayer. He is simply speaking his heart to God.
It is a fascinating thought to consider another lesson about prayer and that being, prayer can Influence God’s Plans! Have you ever tried to change someone’s mind about something? As your mind races to that ‘someone’ and you’re thinking how stubborn they can be, turn it around and think of a time when they tried to change your mind or influence your thinking on something. Did they succeed in changing your mind or did they fail? Odds are they failed because most of us see things our way!
Can you imagine changing God’s mind about something? It is possible! In 2 Samuel 24 David did a bad thing. He counted his fighting men, a sign of pride and ambition. He put confidence in his army strength instead of trusting God. God’s response was allowing David to choose one of three punishments. I don’t recall my parents ever letting me choose my punishments! David could choose between three years of famine, three months of running from his enemies or three days of plague. David chose plague because he felt God’s mercy is better than anything else. Yet it was disturbing as 70,000 people died of a horrible plague in three days. We pick up the story in 2 Samuel 24:25 where we’re told, “David built an altar there to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the LORD answered his prayer, and the plague was stopped.” If David hadn’t prayed would many thousands more have died of the plague? We’re left to wonder. We do know that David’s praying seemed to change God’s mind and God stopped the plague.
Prayer is used to seek God’s blessing and guidance. In Genesis chapter 24 Abraham’s servant was to find a wife for Abraham’s son, Isaac, as was indicative of Eastern culture. It was a tremendous task. Failure was not an option with a significant responsibility of shaping the future inheritance and blood-line of the father of Nations. So when the servant arrived at the town of Nahor he prayed a simple prayer. Verse 42 – “O LORD, the God of my master, Abraham, if you are planning to make my mission a success, please guide me in a special way.” He prayed for success.
So far, the focus on prayer is about speaking and sharing our thoughts and desires to God. But prayer is more than talking. Prayer Involves Listening for God. In 1 Kings 19 Elijah, a prophet, needed to hear from God. He upset the political and religious society of his time and was a wanted man. Very desperate for help and slipping into depression, God came to him. Elijah was in a mountain cave. In the process of extraordinary appearances, we read in verses 11-13, “As Elijah stood there, the LORD passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.” We can’t hear God if we’re constantly talking. It is very hard to have a conversation with someone that works toward relationship when that person does all the talking and they don’t take a breath for you to get word in. It’s a one-way monologue and there’s no relationship in it. We can look like we’re engaged and ‘present’ but in reality we’ve checked out and can’t wait for it to end. You can’t have a relationship unless two people are interacting. God cannot build a relationship with us if all we do is talk all day long. There need to be times when we’re quiet and we just listen.
When we consider prayer as listening we can also include the idea of ‘feeling’ in prayer. We sang earlier, “Prayer is the burden of a sign / the falling of a tear / the upward glancing of an eye…” It’s not always a process of talking.
Something needs to be said about prayer-depth. Depth of prayer is based on depth of relationship. Casual relationships lead us to talk about the weather, exchange opinions on sports or provide highlights about the most recent vacation travels or other similar surface dialogue. The deeper the relationship the more compelling the interaction and exchange; the deeper the relationship the more real and raw we allow ourselves to be.
I am always moved by the relationship Jesus had with Peter, James and John. They were the specially chosen of the twelve disciples who saw Jesus at his best and worse. They witnessed his transformation on the mountain when Elijah and Moses appeared and they saw his anxiety and agony in the garden of Gethsemane the night he would be arrested and led to crucifixion on Golgotha. I think Jesus opened those privileges only to people who had gone deep with him and he often called these three aside from the others, to be his close confidants.
So, prayer is the key to connection with God. As we leave prayer, the key to connection we come to
2. FASTING – the key to change
There may be many characteristics of fasting but there are three predominant characteristics that occur in the Bible. Lynne M. Baab captures these for us in “Fasting, Spiritual freedom Beyond Our Appetites” and shows us that fasting usually occurred in one of the following three situations: i) mourning; ii) repentance and iii) seeking answers to prayer.
Fasting is a means to focus on God; to focus on God’s interests; to refocus and realign our lives with God’s priorities. But it’s not only about focusing but speaks significantly about sacrifice. Someone wrote of fasting, “As we “give up” some of our usual distractions, it creates more space for prayer…How will I fast? What is distracting me from my relationship with God? What do I need to abstain from in order to create more space for God and attentiveness to God?”
It was just earlier this week during lunch that our family was chatting about Lent and what we will “give up” for Lent. A challenge that can be explored during Lent is to take the denial a step further and ask, “What will I give up during Lent that is something that distracts me from God so that I can focus on him more?”
Lent is really a form of fasting which leads us to the next lesson. Fasting is not always about giving up food. It’s been suggested that the root form of fasting is giving up food. That may be so but that is not our focus. Keith Power in Fasting, The Forgotten Gift, the Neglected Discipline offers insight. “If at times the word is widened to include other forms of self-denial this does not alter the fact of its basic meaning. However, fasting is more than just abstaining from food; when coupled with prayer it is an act of self-denial for higher purposes and needs to be undertaken with the right motives and heart attitude.”
A case in point of fasting as more than the denial of food is Leviticus 16:31. As God provides the people with instructions about keeping the Sabbath day he tells them, “It will be a Sabbath day of total rest, and you will spend the day in fasting.” I am convinced that the command to rest is achieved through fasting. I feel drawn to the suggestion that God was commanding Sabbath day rest by fasting from work as much as calling the people to fast from food. Getting meals ready or working 12 hours a day are great recipes for distracting us from God. We have an example in the Bible in Luke 10:38-42. Jesus was visiting with Mary and Martha. Mary “sat at Jesus’ feet” (v38) or if you will she was fasting from the kitchen. Martha was busy in the kitchen running around getting the meal ready. She became frustrated and came in the living room and told Jesus he should do something about Mary’s insensitivity to not help in the kitchen. Jesus told Martha she was too worried and bothered about the wrong things and Mary had chosen the best thing – to fast – and he wouldn’t take it from her. The price to sit in company with Jesus was to stay out of the kitchen.”
Another myth to deal with is the idea that Fasting guarantees God’s favour. Fasting may result in us hearing from God but the message may not be what we expect. Jesus told a parable in Luke 18 of a tax man and a Pharisee (a religious leader). The religious leader proudly announced his fasting and tithing practices while the tax man was ashamed of his life and misbehavior. The Message records of verse 14, “Jesus commented, "This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God.” The tax man was not subject to religious practices yet was the one who received God’s favour. Go figure!
Apart from Judas, Jesus’ disciples had his favour yet they did not fast which was questioned by John’s disciples in Matthew 9:14. Jesus answered the question with the recognition that fasting ought to be dictated by the response of the heart to life and that his disciples would fast when he was taken from them.
There is also the private element to fasting which also speaks of the true spirit of fasting. Jesus instructs in Matthew 6:16-17 - "And when you fast, don't make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, who try to look pale and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I assure you, that is the only reward they will ever get. 17But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face.” One of the appealing things about the privacy of fasting is to dispose of ‘false fasting’ because of appearances and to get rid of ‘peacock strutting’!
So, what does a True Fast look like? God’s people wondered the same thing as recorded in Isaiah 58 which also illustrates the earlier lesson that fasting does not guarantee God’s favour, and deals with the peacock-strutting tendencies of fasting. Let’s have a look at
Isaiah 58:2-7…
2Day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Are we ready for this? A true fast
• Brings us face to face with our flaws and short-comings
• Stands for social justice
• Addresses the basic needs of people
• Is more about the needs and concerns of others than it is about me
Do you want to go fasting? Fasting is an opportunity to focus on God’s priorities such as those outlined in Isaiah 58. Fasting is an invitation to give more of ourselves to God for the good of society. Fasting is an act of self-sacrifice that focuses on God’s heart and will for the broader community. This is where fasting should take us. The benediction to the true fast is verses 8-10...
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
That sounds like abundant living promises to me!
WRAP
The Invitation to Abundant Living is offered in part through the activities of prayer and fasting. These are an invitation to connect with God.
Prayer and fasting have a relationship though they are not co-dependents. They are ways of seeking God – his heart, his presence, his voice – to our lives and the situations that matter to us but most important ways of seeking God for the things that matter to him.
While prayer is a focus on connecting with God, fasting is an act of giving up for God. But keep in mind that there are multiple forms that prayer can take and there are many forms of self-denial and fasting. This is bigger than food.
Fasting is a healthy sacrifice of any “love” that distracts us from God’s presence and activity in our lives. It is good to review and reclaim lost territory!
