Serenity Prayer -- the complete prayer

There have been a tremendous number of hits to my posting of the Serenity Prayer.  That post included only the short version.  I have decided to provide the entire prayer, written by Reinhold Niebuhr.

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The Spiritual Discipline that is a Lost Art

I do not believe in coincidences.  I received this devotion yesterday.  Fasting is so important, and our self-indulgent Western culture needs to return to this spiritual discipline.

Cindy

 

	The Spiritual Discipline that’s a Lost Art BIBLE MEDITATION: “I, Daniel…set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.” Daniel 9:2, 3 DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: Someone has called fasting “the weeping of the soul.” Fasting is a lost art in most of our churches, but it is one of the clearest taught doctrines in the Word of God, especially in a time of crisis.  When Ezra and his people were in a predicament, he “proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava…” (Ezra 8:21). Nehemiah said, “And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven” (Nehemiah 1:4). Jehoshaphat “feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast through all Judah” (2 Chronicles 20:3). Joel said, “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly” (Joel 2:15). The Lord Jesus said, “Moreover, when you fast…” (Matt. 6:16-17). Most of us have never practiced fasting with consistency. Fasting is not just going hungry, and it’s not a way to lose weight. Fasting is the affliction of the soul for discipline and determination to humble ourselves before God and seek His face. ACTION POINT: When was the last time you “set your face” to seek the Lord? Is there a situation in your life, in your home, at your job or in your church, that merits serious, sustained prayer? If so, perhaps it is time to seek the Lord in fasting and prayer. View or Share online | Discover Jesus | Read the Bible | LWF.org | Today's Message
	Devotions taken from the messages of Adrian Rogers. © 2011 Love Worth Finding Ministries | PO Box 38300 - Memphis, TN 38183-0300

Fasting -- What it is NOT

Fasting is not a way to show off your spirituality.

“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.(Mt 6:16-17NKJ)

God wants our fasting to be private. A few "fellow fasters" to encourage one another is fine. The point Jesus is making is that we are not to use fasting as a way to show off how spiritual we are.

Fasting is not a “spiritual” way to lose weight. Losing weight is a by product, but that should not be the purpose of a fast. However, I have fasted for God to break my compulsive overeating behaviours. There has been tremendous progress as I learn to feed on God and His Word instead of feeding my sinful nature.

Fasting is not a means of coercing God to do our will. David fasted for his son born out of his adultery with Bathsheba, and yet God still took the child's life.

2Sa12:13-23

So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”

Then Nathan departed to his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became ill. David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them.

Then on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, “Indeed, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not heed our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He may do some harm!”
When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” And they said, “He is dead.”
So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the Lord and worshipped. Then he went to his own house; and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate.
Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.”
And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”

(2Sa12:13-23 NKJ)

God did not answer David's request, but David's response was still to praise God! He didn't say anything like “I didn't pray enough! I didn't fast enough! I didn't have enough faith! If only I had done more, God would have answered my prayer.” He understood that God sometimes says “No!” and yet He still is so worthy to be praised!

Next time we will look more at what Biblical fasting is.

Fasting

Happy New Year! I am sorry for the long silence on this blog. Life can get too busy sometimes. I pray that I will be better able to be consistent with my postings this year.

There is a story in Mat 17:14-21 that may be familiar to many of us. A man brings his son to the disciples because the boy was possessed by a demon and experiencing seizures, but the disciples were unable to cast it out. Now this confused the disciples because as recorded in Mt10:1, Jesus had already given “them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every sickness.”

The story continues:

And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.' ” (Mt 17:18-20 NKJ)

Most of us stop there. If we have enough faith, nothing will be impossible. Wow! That is so exciting – at first. After a while, that promise can become very discouraging for some of us. We fail to see the impossible. We begin to doubt that God will answer our simple prayers, let alone come through with a miracle. Our relationship with God becomes a routine, but it is stale, lacking the joy of seeing God's power at work in our lives.

Jesus, did not stop where many of us stop. His answer to the disciples question of “why couldn't we do it?” went beyond a mustard seed of faith! Jesus finishes with “However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” (Mt 17:21 NKJ– not all translations include this verse)

Jesus fasted for 40 days before He started His ministry (Mt 4:1-11). In the sermon on the mount, Jesus talks about fasting as a normal part of a relationship with God, and says that God will reward you for honouring Him with a secret fast (Mt 6:16-18) In the North American church many people have never fasted, even though it is mentioned numerous times throughout the Scriptures.

A couple of years ago few of my friends started fasting, and they shared the amazing things that God was doing in their lives. I was excited to learn more and to imitate them. I have seen incredible personal transformation in my relationship with God as a result of privately fasting to draw closer to Him. This fall I fasted for specific direction in terms of what path to pursue for my source of living. He has answered that prayer for wisdom more powerfully than any other prayer I have prayed in over 25 years as a Christian! His answer, and the blessings that are accompanying that answer, are turning my unbelieving brother into a believer. Yesterday my brother told me that we need to write down all the “God-moments” in the start-up of our new business!

We cannot coerce God by fasting, or by any other means. However as we saw above, Jesus taught that not all prayers are answered by faith alone. Not all strongholds are demolished by prayer alone. There is reward promised when we fast. That reward may look very different from what you think you want, but reward is promised. The best reward absolutely being a deeper more intimate walk with our beloved Saviour!

Over the next little while, I plan to explore what the Scriptures teach on fasting.

Dear Father,

Thank you for a New Year and a new beginning! I pray that this year will draw each and every one of us into a deeper relationship with You! I pray that we will experience Your life-transforming power in our lives! I pray that You will banish Satan and his lies that say that the days of miracles are past. You are the same yesterday, today, and forever! You are still the God of the miraculous! You are still the God that wants an intimate relationship with each of us! You are the God of healing, the God of peace, the God of power, the God of battle, the God of hope, “the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” (Rom 4:17b) I praise You and worship You in the name of Jesus! Amen

When God gives us what we want

Well, I allowed the business of the season to distract me from the real meaning of Christmas – God with us. Although I have gone through the motions of time with God, because I was tired it was not deep or life-giving time. I knew I was sliding away from God, and this past week I have gotten back on track. It was wonderful yesterday during the sermon at church to learn something new! To me that is a sign that I have put God first again. When my walk with God is stale, I don't see new things in His Word. It is same old, same old – dry, stale, and lifeless.

Our congregation continues to work through The Story, a novelized version of the Bible showing God's story of His endless pursuit of the people He loves. We just looked at the story of Samuel and the establishment of a human king over Israel.

God wanted to raise up a nation that would be so different from the people around them that those people would see His power and His blessings and they would want to know this God of the Israelites. Part of the difference was that God, Himself, was their king. But, the Israelites felt like that wasn't working.

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah,and said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.”( 1Sam 8:4-5)

The Israelites wanted to be just like the neighbouring nations. They thought they were missing out on something. (Hmm, that sounds like many Christians today. God wants us to be different, but we want to enjoy the same things that everyone around us enjoys.)

God was disappointed that His people were rejecting Him as their king. He had His prophet Samuel warn the people what it would mean to have a human king over them.

So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked him for a king.
And he said, “This will be the behaviour of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties,will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.”

Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us,that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” (1Sam 8:10-20)

So God had Samuel anoint Saul as king. Here is the resume of that king:

There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power. And he had a choice and handsome son whose name was Saul. There was not a more handsome person than he among the children of Israel. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people. (1Sam 9:1-2)

This is where I started to learn something new. Saul's resume was that his father was powerful and that he was tall and handsome. This is what the people wanted – a king who looked “kingly.” They were not interested in the king's character or relationship with God, they wanted a king who looked the part.

Saul's kingship was a sad story. I had always wondered why the first king God had selected was such a failure. God gave the people the king they wanted – not the best person for the job! Sometimes God will give us what we pray for (what we pester Him for), even when it is not good for us or His kingdom.

The people wanted a king just like the other nations, so they got a tall and handsome man who did not obey the Lord and who became prideful in his own eyes. He failed miserably as a king. Then God had Samuel go and anoint another king, a “man after His own heart.” (1Sam 13:14)

God sends Samuel to the house of Jesse of Bethlehem to anoint one of his sons as the future king of Israel. When Samuel sees Jesse's oldest

“he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him!" 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." (1Sam 16:6-7)

Samuel had fallen into the same trap as the people of Israel, thinking that tall and handsome makes for a good king. After showing the people that their idea of a king was horribly wrong, He chooses David, a teenage sheep herder who doesn't look outwardly like a king. It is through David that the future Messiah would come – the ultimate fulfilment of all the blessings and promises of God.

The first king of Israel was such a mess-up because God gave the people what they wanted. God didn't make a poor choice for the first king, rather He let the people have what they pestered Him for. It is in King David that we see what kind of king God wants us to have. A king who's first love is God Almighty.

It is Christmas. In North America a HUGE part of the celebration includes lavish gift-giving to those who already have so much. It is a time where the commercials promote and feed greed. The lines between need and want become so blurred. As God's people are we going to be just like everyone around us, or are we going to be different?

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for Christmas! Thank you so much for the incredible privilege of knowing You! As we celebrate the birth of your Son, we also give gifts to others. However, it has become a celebration of consumerism rather than a celebration of Your gift of salvation. You gave us what we desperately needed. We give to satisfy wants. Help us to find the right balance between giving to show love, and giving to satisfy greed. It is a hard balance because we have adopted the culture around us. Help us to give to those who NEED our gifts, just as we NEED Your gift of Jesus. Let our celebration of Jesus' birth not look just like the celebrations of those around us who don't even know You. As we celebrate Christmas may we find ways to give others the ultimate Christmas gift – the gift of a relationship with Your Son.

It is in His name and to Your glory I pray. Amen.

Too busy

Once again I find life too busy.  This is a busy season for us all.  We need to make sure that we do not lose the important with the urgent.  God must be our number one priority in this busy time of year.  We celebrate the Saviour's birth with so much business and materialism that we forget what the true meaning of Christmas is all about!

Christmas is about the birth, the death, and the resurrection of our Saviour!

Prayer of St. Francis

This image has receive many hits, so I thought I would share it again.  St. Francis' prayer describes the heart of what Jesus came to do in our lives.  Christmas is not about material gifts, but gifts of character, compassion, peace, and hope,