Taming the Beast within and Eating the Book

     Fasting…the long lost brother of meditation and prayer. What is fasting and why is it the long lost brother? I call fasting the long lost bother because it complements the disciple of mediation and prayer so well but it appears that it had died out. Fasting is usually one of those disciplines that is not the first discipline to come to mind. So what is fasting and more importantly how does the Bible talk about fasting?

     The Bible refers to fasting as abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. Fasting is meant to be a private matter between the individual and God. However, there are times when corporate fasting is appropriate. There are three types of fast. The first one is what is called a normal fast that is abstaining from all food, solid or liquid, but not from water. The second type is a partial fast and this is a restriction on the diet but not complete abstention. The third type is absolute fast which is no food or water. A word of caution with this one: it is the “exception and should never be engaged in unless one has a very clear command form God, and then for no more than three days” (Foster, 50). 

     So for this week, I chose to do the normal fast for one day. My plan was to eat no food but drink only water. I chose to do it on Saturday. At first, the practice was easy, I had no desire to eat food but as the day wore on the temptation to eat grew stronger. I found it difficult to want to say no to the food especially while putting away food after dinner.

     Foster suggested to mediate and pray during the time you would normally eat. So I took Foster’s advice. I went to a Psalm I knew fairly well, Psalms 139. I focused on the last verse which reads: 

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

     Mediating on this verse and practicing the disciple of fasting, I discovered three things. The first one is I had better concentration. I was able to focus better and felt more accomplished in the things I did. The second thing is that I take for granted the blessing God had bestowed upon me, that is, I was making my excess into necessities. This view was producing an attitude of selfishness and self entitlement, “I needed these things to survive.” The third and most important thing I learned is that there are other areas of in my life where my desire for food spilled into my desire for other things in these other areas. One such area is media. I am an avid fan of shows like the Amazing Race and Survivor but these shows often get more of my attention than God does.

     But God used the practice of fasting to reveal these things. Then on Sunday, I notice that I was very restless, not in the sense that I was too busy but in the sense that all the things I would normally do to occupy my time, minecraft, movies, etc., did not sound to appealing. I had this desire to do something different. However, I could not wrap my mind around what it was. 

     Yet somehow I found myself still participating in these excesses even though they were not appealing to me at that moment. Why did I return to such things when I found no satisfaction in them? I am not sure why. However what I do know is that during this week I must try to put God first. 

Time to Get My Prayer On!

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. ~ Romans 8: 25-27

     The Bible uses the word prayer or its variations (prayers, praying, or prays) 186 times. Wow! That is a lot about prayer. No wonder Richard Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline, writes, “Of all the Spiritual Disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father” (33). So what exactly is prayer? According to Webster Dictionary, Prayer is an address to God or a god in word or thought. But prayer is so much more than just speaking words or thoughts. Prayer is a Christian’s response to the deep belief that God is present and active at all times. It is part of worship. 

     But what exactly is the purpose of prayer? The purpose of prayer is to participate in God’s processes. What I mean is that prayer allows us to participate in God’s plan. We can never suggest something that God hasn’t already thought of but participating in prayer allows us to become more Christ like and our spirit will be attune to God. 

     So this week to practice the discipline of prayer I decided to set aside ten minutes a day to spend in prayer, specifically prayer of intercessory (praying for other people). I have done this kind of prayer in the past but this week instead of praying for all the people who I knew need prayer for this or that situation, I began by asking for God guidance. I wanted him to guide me to pray for specific people and situations. 

     I didn’t set aside ten minutes every day like I had planed because I allowed myself to become to busy that I felt I couldn’t take the time. But the time that I did take was an experience that will be hard to forget. Here is one example: I spent one evening praying in my bedroom but I kept getting distracted by the television in the other room, so with my Bible in hand, I went down into my study room where silence greeted me like a county jail. Stern and unwelcoming. 

     I sat down and began praying by asking God for guidance. The menacing silence soon faded away and replaced with comfort and security. In that atmosphere, situations that I knew well and those that I did not know exactly what was going flooded my mind. Again I asked God to reveal which one(s) I should specifically be praying for. Soon only a handful remained. I spent the next moments praying for each of those situations. When I was finished I had a peace that passed all understanding and I wasn’t sure if ten minutes had passed or an hour had passed. 

     Reflecting on this experience I am remind of Paul’s words to the church of Philippi, 

Do not be anxious about anything,but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 4: 6-7

     And as William Carey said, “Prayer—secret, fervent, believing prayer—lies at the root of all personal godliness.” 

Hum... Hum.... Hum: The discipline of Mediation

Blessed is the one

    who does not walk in step with the wicked

or stand in the way that sinners take

    or sit in the company of mockers,

but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,

    and who meditates on his law day and night.

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,

    which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither—

    whatever they do prospers. ~ Psalms 1: 1-3

     When you hear the word meditation what is the first thing that comes to mind? Maybe it a man cross legged, eyes close, and arms lifted up. So often when I think of meditation I think of eastern religion practices which relate meditation to emptying the mind. However, for the Christian this is not what mediation is.

     Richard Foster writes in Celebration of Discipline, “Christian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear God’s voice and obey his word” (17). Simply put, the Christian idea of mediation is not emptying one’s mind but rather it is an attempt to fill the mind by focusing on God. 

     So this week my plan to practice the discipline of meditation was to set aside three different blocks of time to be still and listen. I began by spending time in prayer asking God to speak and then I listened. 

     This week I only set aside two blocks of time instead of three. While I was mediating, I found it very difficult to keep focused on God and him alone. My mind would drift to the next thing I had to do or what had I plan for tomorrow or even how was I going to get everything done that need to get done. Why is it so easy to drift away from God? I think it is easy because so often I am too busy to be still and know. I do know that God is always with me but I allow myself to become too busy to stop and listen. 

     But even though my mind did drift numerous times, I still found the practice of mediation to beneficial. I did not hear the audible voice of God but I did experience being in the presence of the Holy God. I felt like the Psalmist feels in Psalms 1. I am that tree that is planted by steams of water, who bears fruit because I am abiding in the stream of living water. 

     As Jesus says in John 15: 5,“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” The spiritual discipline of  mediation is exactly that, remaining in the true vine in order to bear fruit.

How easy is confession?

     How easy is confession? This may or may not be a question you often think of but it is important to consider because the answer reveals something about how you perceive confession. The first answer that came to my mind is that confession is easy not because I had a simple view of confession but rather a shallow one. Confession is one of those things that my parents taught me do because it was what good Christians do but they never taught me why it was important or how hard of a discipline confession really is. Richard Foster writes in Celebration of Discipline, 

Confession is a difficult Discipline for [Christians] because we all too often view the believing      community as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners. We feel that everyone else has advanced so far into the holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin. We imagine that we are the only ones who have not stepped onto the high road to heaven. Therefore, we hide ourselves from one another and live in veiled lies and hypocrisy. (145)

     Confession is not meant to isolate us from the believing community but rather it is meant to draw the believing community together in ways that show the community that this believing community is being the Church. Confession is also a “means of healing and transforming the inner spirit” (Foster 144). Yet so often I return to the memories of the action that caused me to confess and seek forgiveness because I have not allow the healing power of God fully transform my inner spirit. 

     So the practice of this disciple came about while I was on a retreat with other students and staff from Kuyper. Friday night’s message was focused on examining what are our motives behind the choices we make. The speaker challenged me to consider the reasons why I chose Kuyper and why I chose to go into the pre-seminary program. 

     I sat on the beach of Lake Michigan in the cool and windy Saturday morning. I began to ponder the question why did I chose Kuyper and the pre-seminary program. I ask the Holy Spirit to reveal both the good and motives. As things came to mind, I just wrote them down and not analyze them. I soon saw motives that horrified me and I knew that they horrified God even more.

     I took the bad motives and confessed them to God asking him to forgiven me for being so self-centered and to help me to live a holy life. That time I spent confessing was a time of healing and transforming because I walked away renewed, refreshed, and in tune with the Holy Spirit. Confessing reminded me that I am totally dependent upon God to rescue me from deepest part of my being where I am a broken human being who is selfish and rebelling against Him.