Fasting from Prayer? By Cortney Donelson

Jude 1:20-21 (The Message)

“… carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched … This is the unending life, the real life!”

“Only through prayer can we look outside ourselves and our habits to see what God wishes for us to see.” – Dennis Cox

Just as with my New Years’ resolutions, I challenged myself to think outside the box for Lent this year. During Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter, many Christians choose to give up something significant (called a fast) in honor of Christ’s death on the cross. The idea is that when you start to crave whatever it is you relinquished, you instead remember the sacrifice Jesus underwent and you draw closer to God through prayer. For example, if I give up Facebook (which I did one year), then whenever the urge to check Facebook arises, I instead pray, giving thanks to God for His Son’s death on my behalf.

However, there was a problem. The year I gave up Facebook, I did not pray every time I thought about logging into that social giant. Instead, I grimaced and moved on to another equally time-wasteful activity. Honestly, I hardly prayed at all. Ironically, this was also the same year that I questioned everything about prayer itself.

Does prayer work?

How am I supposed to pray?

What’s the purpose of prayer if God is in complete control and knows everything anyway?

So in 2011, I spent 12 months researching prayer. I studied the Bible. I read online opinions and books. I wrote down and considered everything I found.

Here is a small portion of what I uncovered.

When I looked at what the Lord Jesus teaches us about prayer, I saw that it's about aligning ourselves with God's Kingdom, with His values, and with His character. Left to ourselves, we tend to move away from God and prefer instead to indulge our own desires. Just like car tires that are out of alignment, the ride is not a smooth one as we fall away from God. However, when we are aligned with God through a diligent prayer life, those bumpy roads feel less jarring.

Another way to think about it is this. Prayer is not about telling God what I want so He can give me my heart’s desires. It is supposed to be about submitting to His will even as I share my desires with Him, understanding that if He wants something different and better than what I want, I acknowledge that He has the right to do whatever He wants because He is God, and I am not. As Jim Davis writes, “Human pride prevents prayer from being a natural thing. Prayer interferes with our own ambitions and our personal agendas.” I have to make the choice to pray. Thankfully, I have discovered that when I do pray it puts my greedy and prideful heart back on track.

God is sovereign, and yet my prayers make a difference … not a difference in the events around me but a difference within me. “A person who experiences prayer as it is intended to be experienced will finish off his prayers as a very different person than he began. The person who began the prayers (as a selfish, self-oriented individual) might not have really deserved what he was asking for, but the new person he becomes as he concludes the prayers (as a thankful, grateful, and more spiritual being),” says Chauna Weisberg, has fulfilled God’s purpose for prayer.

Prayer is meant to be an introspective process. The reason I will continue to pray is not to change what God has intended for me, but for me to get a better picture of His true reality. Jude 1:20-21 says, “… carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched … This is the unending life, the real life!” When I pray, I stay in God’s grace and love. I begin to think like Him, opening the door to living with a joyful purpose. His ways slowly become my ways. And, that is when my life gets the most exciting!

So, why in the world would we fast from prayer? We wouldn't.  Fasting and prayer go hand-in-hand. Deny yourself while you focus on Him, and you will grow closer to God. My point with the title of this blog was this:

What if prayer became such a critical component of our daily life that we couldn't live a moment without it? Imagine what our lives might look like if prayer was our priority instead of our cell phones, Facebook statuses, chocolate, alcohol, snacking, work, cigarettes, or any other of the myriad of things we all try to surrender for Lent. Could prayer become so important that it would be what we think of first when we bring to mind what we cannot live without?

We have the ability to align our hearts with God’s will, expand our currently limited ideas of what is good for us, and embrace God’s love and grace. Envision the relationship we could forge with our Holy Father through prayer – one that would allow Him to stand with us and make us heroes for His Kingdom. That is the kind of life I want – a prayer-filled and purpose-filled life.

Don’t you?

Prayer – God, thank You for the ability to know You. We can know about You through the Bible, but prayer provides for a deeper relationship that changes us from the inside out. Through prayer, we can become more like You, and that is truly a gift. My prayer for us all is that our prayer lives become so crucial that we could not get through a day without it. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

© 2013 As A Clay Jar. All rights reserved.