For the past 4 years in our church we've set aside January to start each year with a month of prayer and fasting. This year I really feel like we're getting it. People are fasting for the first time. The prayer meetings have been well-attended. If prayer is a barometer of spiritual health, then I've got a lot of expectancy for 2006.
One of the primary reasons we pray and fast during January is because prayer mixed with fasting is a practical way to express God-dependency. It is a strategic discipline that communicates a conviction that more than I need food, I need God. I personally believe that fasting is one of the most underrated spiritual disciplines today. It's too bad that something that was so common for Jesus is so foreign to us.
One of my theme verses in 4.5 years of pursuing this church planting dream is 1 Chronicles 29.1.
Then King David said to the whole assembly: "My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. The task is great."
David may as well have been talking about me.
Our focus for week 4 of the prayer and fasting month is on our new church plant in Royal Oak. It's hard to believe that we're less than three months out from the launch date. We're in miracle land. I'm reaquainting myself with the "I'm doing everything I can but I don't think it's going to be enough" feeling. After my creativity is used and my energy is spent, all that's left is to helplessly ask God for His help.
One of my favorite quotes is a familiar one. It was actually my screen saver in College. I'm not even sure who originally said it. But I like the balance it strikes between human effort and God-dependency.
Work like the results depend on you, pray like the results depend on God.
If you're in ministry and you're wondering whether or not you're working from your own strength, or from God's, look no further then your prayer habit. When I work without prayer it's a sure sign that I'm relying on my own resources. When I work with prayer, the lid on what is possible is raised infinitely. My work can do anything I can do. Prayer can do anything God can do.
If I'm going to put in a 12 hour work day, I'd just prefer to know that at the end of it, anything is possible.
You're right, the task is great, but reminds me of what God said of David... 1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
Posted by: Tiffany | January 24, 2006 at 08:42 PM