Tuesday, December 24
the Western Myth
#1 fasting
"Fasting???" i hear you say, "but isn't that something that people did ages ago? isn't something that only psycho extremest devout hardcore Jesus freaks do??".
well no. according to Jesus, fasting is something which he assumed his followers would do...
why then do his followers not do it?
sorry, i may be jumping to conclusions.
why do most Christians not fast on a regular basis?
sorry again, i'm generalising... maybe it's just the ones i know (including myself). why is it that i only fasted for the first time ten years after becoming a Christian??
i can suggest one reason: i was never challenged, nor did i see the need to do so.
what has this got to do with "the western myth"??
simple, i think you'll find people in the east, or "developping countries" or "south countries" or whatever you wanna call poor countries, people take prayer and fasting seriously.
i'm sure we've all had fantastic prayer times/experiences where we saw God's power at work. why then do we still not do it more and more and more?
my first experience of fasting was great, but why do i not still do it on a regular basis?
food.
we all love it, possibly too much.
if we're talking about fasting from food (the original and possibly hardest type of fast) we all get uneasy.
but try it.
why not skipping one meal a day for a few days just as a test to see what happens? you won't die!!
if that works and isn't really too hard, try two meals, and work your way up to a whole day.
if you have dietary requirements, try fasting from something else, TV, take-away, video games...
What's your motivation?
if you're fasting, you're not doing it to loose weight or to be righteous or super-spiritual. the reason you fast should be to pray and show God you are serious about something. that doesn't mean you spend your whole time praying, but certainly it's an attitude of giving up something you enjoy to spend time with God.
so try it! forget about 3 main meals a day plus snacks and give up some of your time to do something worth while!
Why not??
#1 fasting
"Fasting???" i hear you say, "but isn't that something that people did ages ago? isn't something that only psycho extremest devout hardcore Jesus freaks do??".
well no. according to Jesus, fasting is something which he assumed his followers would do...
why then do his followers not do it?
sorry, i may be jumping to conclusions.
why do most Christians not fast on a regular basis?
sorry again, i'm generalising... maybe it's just the ones i know (including myself). why is it that i only fasted for the first time ten years after becoming a Christian??
i can suggest one reason: i was never challenged, nor did i see the need to do so.
what has this got to do with "the western myth"??
simple, i think you'll find people in the east, or "developping countries" or "south countries" or whatever you wanna call poor countries, people take prayer and fasting seriously.
i'm sure we've all had fantastic prayer times/experiences where we saw God's power at work. why then do we still not do it more and more and more?
my first experience of fasting was great, but why do i not still do it on a regular basis?
food.
we all love it, possibly too much.
if we're talking about fasting from food (the original and possibly hardest type of fast) we all get uneasy.
but try it.
why not skipping one meal a day for a few days just as a test to see what happens? you won't die!!
if that works and isn't really too hard, try two meals, and work your way up to a whole day.
if you have dietary requirements, try fasting from something else, TV, take-away, video games...
What's your motivation?
if you're fasting, you're not doing it to loose weight or to be righteous or super-spiritual. the reason you fast should be to pray and show God you are serious about something. that doesn't mean you spend your whole time praying, but certainly it's an attitude of giving up something you enjoy to spend time with God.
so try it! forget about 3 main meals a day plus snacks and give up some of your time to do something worth while!
Why not??
