God is doing a work in me
He’s walking through my rooms and halls
Checking every corner
Tearing down the unsafe walls
And letting in the light
And I am working hard
To clean my house and set it straight
Not let pride get in the way
To catch an eternal vision of
What I am to become
Will you help me be new?
Will you hold me to the promises
That I have made?
Will you let me be new?
Forgive my old self, and my old mistakes

It seems easier
Living out my life in Christ
For those who do not know me
To hide the thorn stuck in my side
And all my secret faults
But you know me well
And it’s you I want the most to see
And recognize the changes
A word from you empowers me
To press on for my goal
Will you help me be new?
Will you hold me to the promises
That I have made?
Will you let me be new?
Forgive my old self, and my old mistakes

When I feel condemned to live my old life
Remind me I’ve been given a new life in Christ
Will you help me be new?
Will you hold me to the promises
That I have made?
Will you let me be new?
Forgive my old self, and my old mistakes
Will you?
You know me well

Martin Luther preached about fasting in a sermon based on Matthew 4:1ff, saying “Of fasting I say this: it is right to fast frequently in order to subdue and control the body. For when the stomach is full, the body does not serve for preaching, for praying, for studying, or for doing anything else that is good. Under such circumstances God’s Word cannot remain. But one should not fast with a view to meriting something by it as by a good work” (What Luther Says, St. Louis: Concordia Publ. House, Vol.1, 1959, p. 506).

“Throughout its course, the life of the godly indeed ought to be tempered with frugality and sobriety, so that as far as possible it bears resemblance to a fast. But, in addition, there is another sort of fasting, temporary in character, when we withdraw something from the normal regimen of living, either for one day or for a definite time, and pledge ourselves to a tighter more severe restraint in diet than ordinarily.” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 2, Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960, p. 1241).

“Is fasting ever a bribe to get God to pay more attention to the petitions? No, a thousand times no. It is simply a way to make clear that we sufficiently reverence the amazing opportunity to ask help from the everlasting God, the Creator of the universe, to choose to put everything else aside and concentrate on worshiping, asking forgiveness, and making our requests known-considering His help more important than anything we could do ourselves in our own strength and with our own ideas. (Edith Schaeffer, The Life of Prayer, Wheaton, IL.: Crossway Books, 1992. pp. 75-76.)

RECOMMENDED READING

John Piper, A Hunger for God, Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer, Wheaton, IL.: Crossway Books, 1997

Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Colorado Springs, CO.: Navpress, 1991.

Lauren F. Winner, Girl Meets God, New York, NY.: Random House, 2002.

Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, San Francisco, CA.: Harper & Row, 1988.

FASTING DEFINED

1. A Christian’s voluntary abstinence from food for spiritual purposes. (Donald Whitney)
2. The voluntary denial of a normal function for the sake of intense spiritual activity. (Richard Foster)

FASTING IS EXPECTED

Matthew 6:16-18

FASTING IS TO BE DONE FOR A PURPOSE

1. To strengthen prayer . . . Ezra 8:23, Nehemiah 1:4, Daniel 9:3, Acts 13:3

2. To seek God’s guidance . . . Judges 20:26, Acts 14:23

3. To express grief . . . 2 Samuel 1:11-12

4. To seek deliverance or protection . . . 2 Chronicles 20:3-4

5. To express repentance and the return to God . . . Joel 2:12

6. To humble oneself before God . . . Psalm 35:13

7. To express concern for the work of God . . . Nehemiah 1:3-4, Daniel 9:3

8. To minister to the needs of others . . . Isaiah 58:6-7

9. To overcome temptation and dedicate yourself to God . . . Matthew 4:1-11

10. To express love and worship to God . . . Luke 2:37

Outline taken from Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, pp. 159-180.

Here is a prayer for today from The Valley of Vision entitled, “Living by Prayer” . . .

O God of the open ear,
Teach me to live by prayer as well as by Providence, for myself, soul, body, children, family, church;
Give me a heart frameable to Thy will; so I might live in prayer, and honor Thee, being kept from evil, known and unknown.
Help me to see the sin that accompanies all I do, and the good I can distil from everything.
Let me know that the work of prayer is to bring my will to Thine, and that without this it is folly to pray;
When I try to bring Thy will to mine it is to command Christ, to be above Him, and wiser than He; this is my sin and pride,
I can only succeed when I pray according to Thy precept and promise, and to be done with as it pleases Thee, according to Thy will.
When Thou commandest me to pray for pardon, peace, brokenness, it is because Thou wilt give me the thing promised, for Thy glory, as well as for my good.
Help me not only to desire small things but with holy boldness to desire great things for Thy people, for myself, that they and I might live to show Thy glory.
Teach me that it is wisdom for me to pray for all I have, out of love, willingly, not of necessity;
that I may come to Thee at any time, to lay open my needs acceptably to Thee;
that my great sin lies in my not keeping the savor of Thy ways; that the remembrance of this truth is one way to the sense of Thy presence;
that there is no wrath like the wrath of being governed by my own lusts for my own ends.

Also, I am going to ask Dustin to post the handout on fasting that I gave to everyone in church two weeks ago. If you haven’t read it yet, it has some good stuff from Donald Whitney on fasting as a spiritual discipline.

UPDATE: The fasting handout can be seen here.

13When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

At our Ash Wednesday service I gave everyone a Lenten pocket reminder in the shape of a nail. We sang “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”, focusing particularly on verse two . . .

“Behold the man upon a cross, MY sin upon his shoulders,
Ashamed I hear MY mocking voice, call out among the scoffers,
It was MY sin that held him there, until it was accomplished,
His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished.”

A primary focus of Lent for me already has been the making the more personal connection between MY sin and the cross of Christ. The following prayer from The Valley of Vision powerfully brings that connection home to me . . .

My Father,
Enlarge my heart, warm my affections, open my lips,
supply words that proclaim ‘Love lustres at Calvary.’
There grace removes my burdens and heaps them on thy Son,
made a transgressor, a curse, and sin for me;
There the sword of thy justice smote the man, thy fellow;
There thy infinite attributes were magnified, and infinite
atonement was made;
There infinite punishment was due, and infinite punishment
was endured.
Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,
cast off that I might be brought in,
trodden down as an enemy that I might be welcomed as a friend,
surrendered to hell’s worst that I might attain heaven’s best,
stripped that I might be clothed,
wounded that I might be healed,
thirsty that I might drink,
tormented that I might be comforted,
made a shame that I might inherit glory,
entered darkness that I might have eternal light.
My Savior wept that all tears might be wiped from my eyes,
groaned that I might have endless song,
endured all pain that I might have unfading health,
bore a thorny crown that I might have a glory-diadem,
bowed his head that I might uplift mine,
experienced reproach that I might receive welcome,
closed his eyes in death that I might gaze on unclouded
brightness,
expired that I might forever live.
O Father, who spared not thine only Son that thou might spare me,
All this transfer thy love designed and accomplished;
Help me to adore thee by lips and life.
O that my every breath might be ecstatic praise,
my every step buoyant with delight, as I see
my enemies crushed,
Satan baffled, defeated, destroyed,
sin buried in the ocean of reconciling blood,
hell’s gates closed, heaven’s portal open.
Go forth, O conquering God, and show me the cross,
mighty to subdue, comfort and save.

Valley of Vision: Love Lustres at Calvary
The Banner of Truth Trust | 1975 | Arthur Bennett

O Lord,
No day of my life has passed
that has not proved me guilty in Your sight,
Prayers have been uttered from a prayerless heart;
Praise has been often praiseless sound;
My best services are filthy rags.
Blessed Jesus, let me find a hiding place in Your appeasing wounds.
Though my sins rise to heaven Your merits soar above them;
Though unrighteousness weighs me down to hell,
Your righteousness exalts me to Your throne.
All things in me call for my rejection,
All things in You plead for my acceptance.
I appeal from the throne of perfect justice
to Your throne of boundless grace.
Grant me to hear Your voice assuring me;
that by Your stripes I am healed,
that You were bruised for my iniquities,
that You have been made sin for me
that I might be righteous in You,
that my grievous sins, my many sins,
are all forgiven,
buried in the ocean of Your concealing blood.
I am guilty, but pardoned,
lost, but saved,
wandering, but found,
sinning, but cleansed.
Give me perpetual broken-heartedness,
Keep me always clinging to Your cross,
Flood me every moment with descending grace,
Open to me the springs of divine knowledge,
sparkling like crystal,
flowing clear and unsullied
through my wilderness of life.

Taken from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1975), p. 83.

In a culture obsessed with self-improvement and a society where narcissism is a value, how do we consciously embrace brokenness? Only by the work of God’s Spirit in our lives. May it happen to each of us this Lent.

But herein lies one of my first obstacles. I have decided to give up media for Lent. What does that mean? Here is how one online dictionary defines the term “media” . . .

Media is the mass-communication industry comprising journalism and entertainment. It is a term derived from the concept of an industry communicating through different media, e.g., newspapers, television, films, magazines, the world wide web, etc.

I usually begin our worship service at Abbott each week with a reminder that we live in a world that is constantly competing for our attention and our affections. For me, this happens most frequently through the Internet and television. I want to try and quiet those voices for a time so that I may listen more carefully for the voice of the Lord speaking to my heart.

So my question is, how do I maintain a blog while fasting from the Internet? I am not sure, but here is my strategy. I still plan on keeping up with email correspondence during Lent. So I am going to write my blog entry each morning and email it to our web master, who will in turn, post it here for you. We’ll see how things work.

Most posts won’t usually be this long. I plan to include just a daily Scripture verse, a thought for the day and a short prayer.

So here we go . . .

Today is Ash Wednesday. Why ash? Ashes have been recognized throughout history as a symbol of mourning and repentance. There are many passages in Scripture that show us this, like Job 42:5-6,

“My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

(See also Jeremiah 6:26, Daniel 9:3, Matthew 11:21)

But ashes have also symbolized mortality. In Ash Wednesday services where ashes are imposed upon the foreheads of the worshippers, it is done so with the words, “Remember, thou art dust, and to dust thou shall return.” These are the words God spoke to Adam in Genesis 3:19.

So it is a time to contemplate our death and the sin that caused it.

Romans 5:12 reminds us, “Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.”

Solomon speaks of the value of contemplating our death in Ecclesiastes 7:1-2,

“A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth. It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart.”

But our death is not the only death we contemplate today. More important than our own is the death of our savior, Jesus.

Hebrews 2:14-15 points us to the hope we have because of Jesus’ death,

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

Let me encourage you now to step out in faith and join me on this Lenten journey. Remembering our sin and our Savior, our death and his. Let us use this time to prepare ourselves for Easter and the celebration of Christ’s triumph over the grave.