Today marks the ninth day of Twenty-One Days of Prayer and Fasting at the Church of The Highlands here in Birmingham. This is the third Prayer and Fasting that I’ve taken part in since my wife Jackie and I began attending Highlands in 2009, and this one has already been more impactful for me than the first two combined. I attribute this, not to the fact that I’m praying more, eating less, and abstaining from caffeine, but from the expectancy that I had going in.
The concept of fasting for a given period of time isn’t new to me. Throughout my life, as a child, an adolescent, and as an adult, I fasted every year during Lent, which is the period of forty-days leading up to Easter Sunday. To be honest with you, I wasn’t really sure of why I was fasting, other than the fact that everyone in my family and my church did. I guess I figured that fasting was just something that I was supposed to do.
I realize now that fasting is a way for me to get closer to God, just as Jesus did. During each of the previous Twenty-One Days, I’ve had some amazing revelations (or revies, as my friend Amy Leigh refers to them) about myself and about God. Now, rather than dreading the fasting period, as I had done in the past, I actually look forward to it with anticipation and expectancy.
The first day, which was Sunday, came and went, and my biggest “take-away” from that day was the massive headache which was the result of caffeine and sugar withdrawal. As much as I wanted to, I certainly didn’t feel any closer to God. The same could be said for Monday and Tuesday.
When Jackie and I rolled out of bed on Wednesday morning at five o’clock to make it to the prayer service at church by six, I knew that something was still missing, and to tell you the truth, I was a little frustrated by it. I mean, I was giving up caffeine and sweets and bread and snacks for twenty-one days to get closer to the Lord, and it wasn’t working! Undaunted and as determined as ever, because I know that God is faithful, I slid into the car with Jackie and we headed for church to join the hundreds of others that would be there offering their petitions to God.
The prayer service began with a short message from one of the pastors, which was followed by a song performed by the worship team. Even as I was singing I realized that my heart just wasn’t in it; I seemed to be simply going through the motions, which only served to dampen my spirits even more.
The end of the worship song marked the beginning of thirty minutes of personal prayer, which would be followed by everyone coming together in corporate prayer, led by the pastor. With the sounds of pre-recorded worship music filling the large sanctuary, personal prayer began, and I left Jackie in her seat as I stepped away and began my “prayer walk,” as I refer to it. You see, sometimes I like to pace the floor when I walk, for various reasons that I won’t go into right now.
My initial prayer to God was for a “revie”…
“Lord, I know that something is missing here; something that’s holding me back, that’s keeping me from drawing closer to You. If there’s something that I need to feel, let me feel it. If there’s something that I need to see, let me see it. If there’s something that’s hidden from me, please reveal it. Could you help me out here? Could You give me a revie? I’m just not satisfied with where I am.”
It took less than a minute for me to “get it.”
Passion
What’s your favorite food? I mean something that you absolutely love to eat? At this moment, because I’m still fasting, there’s nothing that I’d like more than a Krispy Kreme doughnut and a cup of coffee! Under normal circumstances, it’d be a nice medium-rare steak with a baked potato and a side of sautéed mushrooms. Quite simply put, I have a passion for a great steak.
But what if I’m not hungry? If I’ve just finished two cups of coffee and a Krispy Kreme doughnut and a guy comes up and offers me a nice, juicy steak, I’m gonna decline his offer. While my passion for steak is as strong as ever, I’m just not hungry for it.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
My passion for God is as great as ever. The fire that burns inside of me for Him is white-hot, all consuming, never fading. That passion is most evident when I get to share what’s my heart about God, with believers and non-believers alike. There’s no shortage of passion, to be sure.
The problem is that somewhere along the way, between Jackie, family, business, the prayer room in our salon, Christmas, and church, I lost my hunger for God. I lost the fervor to seek Him, to get into His Word, and to know more about Him. I even lost the joy of writing about Him.
It all boils down to this: When we’re not hungry, we don’t eat. When we don’t eat, we don’t grow. That’s exactly what happened to me.
You see, I had grown complacent in “getting after” God. I was feasting on an explosion of spiritual growth that I’d had a couple of months ago, and I guess that I foolishly thought that it would just last and last. Quite obviously, it didn’t.
If you’re old enough, you probably remember the closing line to an ad campaign on television years ago that made the quite simple, yet quite true proclamation that “There’s always room for JELL-O.” True, that is, as long as you were hungry for it.
GOD is the same way. There’s always more of Him to feel, to learn, and to experience. Even when you think that you’re as filled with Him as you could possibly be, there’s always room for more. Always.
You just have to be hungry for Him. And all you have to do is ask.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8 NIV
I asked. He answered. I’m hungry!
Patience is a virtue that I’ve struggled with all of my life, and especially when I was younger. Come to think of it, both my impatience and the anger that accompanied it were prevalent constant companions until I began the spiritual journey that I’m on just over five years ago. Since then, I’ve learned (after a great deal of prayer, practice, and self-reminders) to be more patient in most every situation. I’ll be honest in telling you that waiting for God to open doors for me to share my heart with others in the area of ministry has become the last bastion of impatience in my life. I’m ready, willing, and able to go, but apparently He doesn’t think that it’s time. What’s He waiting for? J
Waiting…
I was doing some research the other day and read in the Bible that Abraham was 100 years old and his wife Sarah was 90 when she gave birth to Isaac, the son that God had promised them some twenty-four years earlier! Twenty-four years! Yeah, I know that God’s timetable and ours are totally different; a year for us is the blink of an eye for Him. Still. Twenty-four years? Can you imagine waiting that long for anything, especially a son? I’ve grown impatient after I’ve waiting for a traffic light to change from red to green after, what, maybe a minute?
You have to believe that having a son was a desire of Abraham’s heart long before he was seventy-six years old. Chances are that we could easily swap the numbers around and envision Abraham dreaming of having a son at the age of twenty-four and having to wait seventy-six years for his dream to become a reality. Wow…a lifetime of praying and waiting for the birth of a son.
What’s more is that God had told Abraham that he “would be the father of many nations.” Genesis 17:4 At the time, Abraham was 99 and Sarah was 89, and they were childless. God had to have been kidding, right? Surely the faith and patience of both Abraham and Sarah were stretched to the limit on more than one occasion during their excruciating wait. Still, they remained obedient to God; and God made good on His promise.
Of course, the story gets even better! One day, God came to Abraham and instructed him to take Isaac to the top of a mountain and sacrifice him as a burnt offering. God knew that He was putting Abraham’s obedience to the ultimate test, because of His love for us. What greater love is there than that of a parent for his child?
The next morning, per God’s instructions, Abraham took Isaac and set out for the mountain where he would sacrifice his son. Once there, Abraham built the sacrificial altar, arranged the wood, placed his bound son Isaac on top of the pile and prepared to sacrifice him by his own hand. At the last moment, an angel of God called out to Abraham and told him not to sacrifice Isaac. Because of his obedience, Abraham would be greatly blessed, as would all of his descendants.
And he was. God was true to His promise.
Consider your level of patience, especially as it pertains to God’s plans unfolding in your life. Do you have the patience to wait a year for a prayer to be answered? How about five years? Ten? Could you, like Abraham, wait for twenty-four years for God to make good on a promise?
I’ve been waiting now for five years. If I follow God’s timeline for Abraham, I figure that I have nineteen more years to wait. That’d make me seventy-eight! That’s okay; like I said, Abraham was one hundred years old when Sarah gave birth to Isaac. All I want to do is share what’s on my heart. Patience…
One more thought…
What if you are, or have been waiting for God to answer a prayer for you. You’ve been diligent in your petitions, and while your faith may have wavered a bit, it has never failed. What would your reaction to God be if He finally answered your prayers, then put you to a test that would take away that which you had been praying for all along?
Do you think that you’d pass the test?
That’s a tough one, isn’t it?
Psalm 103 is perhaps one of the most beautiful and meaningful chapters in the Bible. Psalm 103 is homage to God by David for who He is to us, and what He does for us.
1Praise the Lord, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2Praise the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all his benefits---
3-5who forgives all of your sins…and heals…who redeems…and crowns…who satisfies.
Perhaps you can read Psalm 103 and not be rocked by its message of hope, promise, and deliverance.
Perhaps you’ve never let your sins accumulate to the degree that you couldn’t imagine the possibility of having a relationship with God.
Perhaps you’ve never been the victim of dis-ease, either in the form of a physical ailment or of mental anguish.
Perhaps you’ve never spent your life in a mental “pit,” living a life with no hope for today or the promise of a better tomorrow.
Perhaps you’ve never left your dreams and ambitions for a fulfilling life behind with your childhood.
8The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in love.
10he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
Perhaps you’ve never known what it feels like to be loved unconditionally, or to feel true compassion.
Perhaps you’ve never committed an offense so grievous against God or man that you couldn’t possibly imagine being forgiven.
Perhaps you’ve never been able to wrap your mind around the belief that contrary to our tendencies, God doesn’t punish us according to the severity of our offenses.
Perhaps you’ve never understood or accepted that God will “turn-the-other-cheek” time after time after time for the same offense.
13As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
Perhaps you’ve never figured out how the God that we are instructed to fear can be so compassionate, loving us the way a father loves his child.
Perhaps you’ve never realized that, unlike our earthly fathers, God the Father is perfect in every way. He’s always there to love us, to forgive us, to provide for us, and to lift us up.
Far too many of us today can associate with one or more of the “Perhaps” listed above. Sadly, some of us can relate to all of them.
Perhaps it’s time to reflect on God as you see Him; who He is, what He is, and what He does. Then, perhaps it’s time to take another look at Him through the eyes of Daniel.
Perhaps, like me, you’ll see God like you’ve never seen Him before.
