The Spiritual Disciplines Of Fasting And Prayer

THE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES OF FASTING AND PRAYER

Matt. 6: 5-8. 16-18

I want to share with you this morning on the SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES OF FASTING AND

PRAYER. The problem with that title is the difficult word, DISCIPLINE! Yes, fasting and

prayer are what we call spiritual disciplines that by their very nature require hard work and

training, but please so not misunderstand me - both fasting and prayer as spiritual disciplines are

not energized nor accomplished by our will power or determination but rather prompted and

powered by the Spirit Of God.

When I think of discipline and training, I think of the upcoming WINTER OLYMPICS and all

that discipline and training that is undertaken by each olympic athlete. Think of it this way this

morning - The Holy Spirit is the Trainer and Coach who is able to make each one of us an

olympian when it comes to fasting and prayer.

Let’s first of all look at FASTING and see why it is such a vital spiritual discipline. By the way,

fasting is mentioned more in Scripture than baptism. Fasting is simply the denial of food for a

specific period of time. Now the words discipline and denial are not exactly key words in our

over-indulgent culture, so why in the passage read this morning does Jesus encourage his disciples

to fast? Let me give you three reasons this morning. . . .

First realize that as a spiritual discipline, fasting is NOT AN END IN ITSELF but rather a means

to a greater end as it precedes either the spiritual discipline that Gus talked about last Sunday -

that of studying the Word of God or the spiritual discipline that we will talk about in a few

minutes - that of prayer. Fasting is not just an exercise in self0denial but rather a re-investment of

time and energy into time spent with the Lord in either prayer or Bible Study. The bottom line is

that fasting ENRICHES our time spent with the Lord.

Second, there is also a sense in which food dulls our spirits and the absence of food quickens our

spirits. You know how after a large meal you feel kind of content comfortable and perhaps even

lethargic? Think of that as kind of being DRUNK OR LOGGY WITH FOOD. Fasting then is a

way in which our spirits are SUPER-CHARGED for the very presence of God. It is like prayer

and our time in the Word being similar to driving a car and then when you add fasting, it is like

adding a super-charger under the hood and you experience a whole new driving excitement.

Fasting serves like the practice before the big “prayer game,” or like the bullpen before you take

the pitcher’s mound.

Third, Fasting CLEARS AWAY THE DISTRACTIONS and allows us to clearly hear the voice

of the Lord for DIRECTION in our lives through the Word of God or Prayer.

Now let’s talk about the spiritual discipline of PRAYER! In the passage this morning, Jesus says

that prayer is SINCERE because it is to be offered to God. You say, “that’s obvious, isn’t it?”

Then why at times are we so concerned about what others think of our prayer - what words we

use? -how it sounds? Jesus is not saying here that we should not pray in our times of public

worship - I believe that He is saying that the effectiveness of our public prayer is determined by

the SECRET prayer in the closet. Bob Cook one said that we all have a sort of routine prayer in

our system and one we get rid of that, real praying begins.

So the spiritual discipline of prayer is sincere, secret and also SPIRIT PROMPTED! That is what

we read in Romans 8: 26.27 (Look it up later) We live in a world of INSTANT EVERYTHING

and so we often are looking for INSTANT PRAYER - you know. Big Blessings for Small

Installments. We even feel like we need to have an INSTANT START when we begin to pray.

R.A. Torry once said that we should never utter a single syllable in prayer until we are conscious

that we are in the presence of God and that sometimes requires a “holy pause.” Sometimes that

holy pause requires that we clear the desktop of our lives - we get rid of the clutter and trash that

seems to accumulate through the week. Once to visualize the need I placed a trash can at the

door of the Sanctuary to remind the congregation that it was time to make a deposit of anything

that would interfere with the holy pause that was needed for proper worship and prayer in coming

into the presence of God. Spirit - prompted prayer is of the prevailing variety where there is no