Mark: Prayer and Fasting

If I am to be perfectly honest, fasting is the spiritual discipline I struggle with the most. It doesn’t come naturally! Reading and studying scripture, prayer, fellowship, worship, giving and serving — each of these seem to happen for me with less effort and intention than fasting. Now I may be alone in this, but from casual conversation with others I don’t think I am. Many Christians fast seldomly, if ever, and the fasting that is done generally looks like giving up something around the season of Lent — this is not the type of fasting that Jesus is calling us to!

I think there are two main reasons why we as Christians don’t fast: 1) We don’t understand it. We haven’t been taught the meaning, reason and purpose behind fasting. And 2) it’s difficult. It’s hard to fit into our busy schedules, especially if we have jobs and families. How do we explain to our co-workers why we’re not eating? I still need to make food and feed my kids — I’ll be so tempted to cheat!

This Sunday we’re going to look at Mark 9:14-29, a passage that gives good insight into how to approach difficult situations, something I know all of us will face in our lives. Our gathering starts at 6pm — hope to see you there.

Blessings,

Pastor Mike