March 6-April 21
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
After the sermon on fasting at the beginning of February, I received an email from one of our Salem family who has been struggling with fasting. In the email, the following was shared:
I have this vision that we as a church are caged lions. We are powerful, and fierce, and beautiful. But we have forgotten what it is like to hunger. To hunt for that which we need. To actively seek out God. We have become content with the Bible in our laps and the music on our radios, and though we could be so much more if we were free, we stay in our cage. Because the wild is scary. And we don’t know what we are doing. But what if we all stepped out of the cage, TOGETHER? Would it not be less scary? Would we not lean on each other, and help each other, and learn from each other?
Through prayer and discussion with the elders, we believe there is wisdom in this vision and that God is inviting us, as a congregation, to pursue him with renewed vigor; to take an opportunity to seek after him in fresh ways; to ask desperately for a renewed hunger, a renewed passion, a renewed desire for Him. To that end:
We invite you to choose a day each week during Lent to fast. It can be whatever day you want. It could be the same day each week or a different day depending on your life circumstances.
Fasting is voluntarily going without food — or any other regularly enjoyed, good gift from God — for the sake of some spiritual purpose. It is markedly counter-cultural in our consumerist society. For our fast, we are inviting our Salem family to join with us in fasting and praying that God would stir in us a deeper longing, a deeper hunger for Him.
We invite you to choose the kind of fast that you will utilize.
- Regular Fast – Traditionally, a regular fast means refraining from eating all food. Most people still drink water or juice during a regular fast.
- Partial Fast – This type of fast generally refers to omitting a specific meal from your diet or refraining from certain types of foods.
- Full Fast – These fasts are complete – no food and no drink for a period of time.
If possible, we invite you to participate in a regular fast for two or three meals. If you choose two meals, you might fast from breakfast and lunch and then break your fast with dinner. If you choose three meals, you would go a full day without eating. In a regular fast you could still drink water and juice.
If health concerns prevent you from a regular fast, we invite you to participate in a partial fast. Perhaps fasting from a specific food or food or from a specific meal would be a way you could join. Or you might choose an activity or something you enjoy like TV viewing or other media/internet use.
The point is to voluntarily refrain from something good in order to seek the giver of all that is good – God! We join with believers over the centuries in saying to God that we love him more than his creation. We too do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from his mouth (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4).
Each week, we will provide specific suggestions for fasting and prayer points for that week. If you have questions let us know – others may have the same questions. If you sense God putting something on your heart, share it with us. Others may be sensing the same thing. Let’s encourage and support one another as we fast.
David Mathis from Desiring God Ministries offers the following suggestions when beginning to fast:
Plan what you’ll do instead of eating.
Fasting isn’t merely an act of self-deprivation, but a spiritual discipline for seeking more of God’s fullness. Which means we should have a plan for what positive pursuit to undertake in the time it normally takes to eat. We spend a good portion of our day with food in front of us. One significant part of fasting is the time it creates for prayer and meditation on God’s word or some act of love for others.
Before diving headlong into a fast, craft a simple plan. Connect it to your purpose for the fast. Each fast should have a specific spiritual purpose. Identify what that is and design a focus to replace the time you would have spent eating. Without a purpose and plan, it’s not Christian fasting; it’s just going hungry.
Consider how it will affect others.
Fasting is no license to be unloving. It would be sad to lack concern and care for others around us because of this expression of heightened focus on God. Love for God and for neighbor go together. Good fasting mingles horizontal concern with the vertical. If anything, others should even feel more loved and cared for when we’re fasting.
So as you plan your fast, consider how it will affect others. If you have regular lunches with colleagues or dinners with family or roommates, assess how your abstaining will affect them, and let them know ahead of time, instead of just being a no-show, or springing it on them in the moment that you will not be eating.
We don’t pray to be seen by others, but sometimes our fasting becomes known and that’s ok. The important thing is that in our hearts our fast be for God and not the approval of people. Whether you choose to join us or not, would you return the commitment card with your intention checked (we don’t need your name on it!) so we have an idea of how many are fasting? There will be a box in the back of the sanctuary for this purpose.
We pray that God will be blessed by this offering of love and devotion. We pray that God will be honored by our desire to seek after Him. We pray each one who chooses to fast will find that God really does satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts and that he will stir a deep hunger in each heart for more of Him.
Pastor Rick and the Elders