Back to the Future: Prayer & Fasting

We are continuing our mini-series, “Back to the Future,” with the idea that sometimes we must go back to go forward. God is timeless. The details, the circumstances, or the context may change, but the principles and truths of God are constant. God’s basics are a firm foundation that we sometimes must revisit for wherever God is leading us into the future. In this message, we are looking at prayer and fasting, two spiritual practices that have been around for thousands of years and resonate within our souls as ways to connect with the sacred, the holy, and the divine God. In communicating with God, prayer has been a core practice for thousands of years, and it is today. As we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this weekend, it is fitting to hear his words: “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” Similarly, fasting has been a core practice for thousands of years. Dr. King engaged in fasting as a spiritual discipline of self-sacrifice, of solidarity with the poor and oppressed, and to connect with God for discernment, wisdom, and spiritual power. Pastor and theologian, John Piper said, “Fasting is at heart…an intensification of prayer. It’s a physical exclamation point to the end of the sentence: “We hunger for you to come in power.” “It’s a cry with your body, I really mean it, Lord This much I hunger for you.” From the beginning, prayer, and fasting has been about connecting with God with God at the center. Fasting is about emptying ourselves to make room for God. Prayer is communing with God in our fast. As we do, God fills us with God’s character and many blessings.