First Notes: A Hunger for God
Dear First Baptist Family,
I always love the slower pace of the summer, but also love the routine and celebrations of the Fall. Fall is the time of back to school, back to work, and back to basics. It also is a great time to look ahead for what God is doing in our church.
Two Sundays ago, I cast a vision for what I believe our church can do together, and what I believe God wants to do through our church. I'm calling it the 15% mission. The idea is that over the next 20 years, we would seek to have a spiritual impact with 15% of Knoxville's population in any given week.
I also said that three things are required of all of us for this mission to be fulfilled: a commitment to discipleship, a willingness to plant seeds, and a passion for prayer and fasting.
After Labor Day, I'm asking you and others in our church to engage in six days of prayer and fasting. Each day by email, you'll be sent suggestions for prayer. But I'd like for you to consider today how you might fast from something during that week.
Why fasting? In the early church, prayer and fasting were means by which people drew near to God. It's a way of expressing your dependence on God while also seeking God specifically for wisdom, help, or direction.
If you want a more fruitful relationship with God, or if you need help in a time of real need, then fasting is a way to obtain the grace you're looking for.
The best place to begin is with the definition of fasting. In the Old Testament, the main Hebrew word used for fasting is tsom, which refers to fasting from food. In the New Testament, the Greek word for fasting is similar, meaning abstaining from eating.
So in both the Old and New Testaments, fasting is about going without food to see God for some special reason. You can fast from things like social media, television, alcohol, or other things to seek God's purposes, but there's nothing like abstaining from food that especially expresses your need for God. You could do without all of those things and survive, but you can't do without food.
Why would anyone go without food? It's because we're inherently weak and needy people. Going without food helps us to remember that sometimes we need to knock loudly on the gates of heaven. Fasting is about a more urgent, earnest, and heartfelt seeking of God. It demonstrates that together we are desperate for God.
In the Bible, people fasted in times of national emergency, when they needed deliverance, when they needed helpful guidance, or when they were simply in need of humbling themselves because of their sins. Moses fasted on two occasions at least for 40 days and 40 nights. Daniel observed a fast of 21 days. Hannah, when she was baron and heartbroken, fasted as she prayed.
Even Jesus fasted for 40 days before He began His great mission and during his time of temptation.
Next week, starting on the Tuesday after Labor Day, I'm inviting you to fast from something during that week. It may be that you fast from food for a day (but not without water), or even just one meal during the day. Perhaps you will fast from alcohol for the week as you pray, and seek the face of the Lord on behalf of our church. Maybe your fast will last only a day, or maybe for the full six days. Perhaps you need to fast from television or shows they were already showing you away from the Lord.
If you're relatively healthy, you shouldn't have trouble fasting from food, but if you have some physical issue, of course I encourage you to be wise about that.
God has said, “You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
Our goal is to develop a greater hunger from God and to seek God's face for our future and all that we need to face that future. We're asking God to give us a greater appetite for God and to lessen our appetite for the things of this world.
Let me know what questions or thoughts you have! I look forward to seeing what God will do in our church during that week. I love you and I'm so glad to be with you on the journey.
Pastor Brent McDougal
I always love the slower pace of the summer, but also love the routine and celebrations of the Fall. Fall is the time of back to school, back to work, and back to basics. It also is a great time to look ahead for what God is doing in our church.
Two Sundays ago, I cast a vision for what I believe our church can do together, and what I believe God wants to do through our church. I'm calling it the 15% mission. The idea is that over the next 20 years, we would seek to have a spiritual impact with 15% of Knoxville's population in any given week.
I also said that three things are required of all of us for this mission to be fulfilled: a commitment to discipleship, a willingness to plant seeds, and a passion for prayer and fasting.
After Labor Day, I'm asking you and others in our church to engage in six days of prayer and fasting. Each day by email, you'll be sent suggestions for prayer. But I'd like for you to consider today how you might fast from something during that week.
Why fasting? In the early church, prayer and fasting were means by which people drew near to God. It's a way of expressing your dependence on God while also seeking God specifically for wisdom, help, or direction.
If you want a more fruitful relationship with God, or if you need help in a time of real need, then fasting is a way to obtain the grace you're looking for.
The best place to begin is with the definition of fasting. In the Old Testament, the main Hebrew word used for fasting is tsom, which refers to fasting from food. In the New Testament, the Greek word for fasting is similar, meaning abstaining from eating.
So in both the Old and New Testaments, fasting is about going without food to see God for some special reason. You can fast from things like social media, television, alcohol, or other things to seek God's purposes, but there's nothing like abstaining from food that especially expresses your need for God. You could do without all of those things and survive, but you can't do without food.
Why would anyone go without food? It's because we're inherently weak and needy people. Going without food helps us to remember that sometimes we need to knock loudly on the gates of heaven. Fasting is about a more urgent, earnest, and heartfelt seeking of God. It demonstrates that together we are desperate for God.
In the Bible, people fasted in times of national emergency, when they needed deliverance, when they needed helpful guidance, or when they were simply in need of humbling themselves because of their sins. Moses fasted on two occasions at least for 40 days and 40 nights. Daniel observed a fast of 21 days. Hannah, when she was baron and heartbroken, fasted as she prayed.
Even Jesus fasted for 40 days before He began His great mission and during his time of temptation.
Next week, starting on the Tuesday after Labor Day, I'm inviting you to fast from something during that week. It may be that you fast from food for a day (but not without water), or even just one meal during the day. Perhaps you will fast from alcohol for the week as you pray, and seek the face of the Lord on behalf of our church. Maybe your fast will last only a day, or maybe for the full six days. Perhaps you need to fast from television or shows they were already showing you away from the Lord.
If you're relatively healthy, you shouldn't have trouble fasting from food, but if you have some physical issue, of course I encourage you to be wise about that.
God has said, “You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
Our goal is to develop a greater hunger from God and to seek God's face for our future and all that we need to face that future. We're asking God to give us a greater appetite for God and to lessen our appetite for the things of this world.
Let me know what questions or thoughts you have! I look forward to seeing what God will do in our church during that week. I love you and I'm so glad to be with you on the journey.
Pastor Brent McDougal
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