New UMC Vision Statement: An Invitation to Joy and Hope
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Posted: February 13 2023 at 09:58 PM
Author: Karen Bonnell, Discipleship Task Force
Prayer and Fasting - Discipleship Task Force Lent 2023
The Discipleship Task Force invites you to pray and fast with them on Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2023, and Good Friday, April 7, 2023. Lent is a wonderful time to practice this means of grace. It is a way of humbling ourselves before God. Fasting helps us hunger for God.
John Wesley points out that fasting is to center on God. As he wrote, “First, let it [fasting]be done unto the Lord with our eye singly fixed on Him. Let our intention herein be this, and this alone, to glorify our Father which is in heaven…” (Sermons on Several Occasions). John Wesley practiced the discipline of fasting 2 days a week.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus didn’t say, “If you fast…” but “When you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret…” (Matthew 6:17, 18)
Fasting reveals things that control us. In fasting we realize that we are sustained “by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4. To Jesus, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.” John 4:32,34. We in America think we are starving if we miss a meal, when actually a person can go several days without food. It is vital to keep drinking water, however. We will learn more about fasting this fall when our NIC Book club studies Bishop Ken Carder’s Living our Beliefs: The United Methodist Way.
If it is medically not advised to abstain from food, as for diabetics and pregnant mothers, one can do a partial fast. Consider eating only vegan (plant based) foods. John Wesley’s fast began after the evening meal and ended at “tea time” the next day. Some wait until the evening meal and others go without a full day’s 3 meals. The key is that you center on God and pray.
Here is a prayer that you may begin and end the fast:
“Lord, Jesus Christ, I offer you this fast for your glory and my good. All I am and all I have I offer to you for your purposes in the world and my progress in your grace. Amen.” (from Seedbed)
May grace abound in you during the time of prayer and fasting.