December 27, 2010
It is never too late for a fresh start! There isn’t a particular time that is better than another for a fresh start, yet the New Year is a natural transition into something new.
For many of you reading this post, the New Year represents just that: a chance to start over. That resolve takes the form of resolutions such as going to the gym or loosing those stubborn five pounds. If you are anything like me, most promises I’ve made to myself have often met an untimely end by April!
You are invited to make an important resolve. One that could affect all others: to align your life with God.
In other words, let’s set our heart and mind towards the things of God. This is not an invitation to simply “try harder”. It is an invitation to surrender and allow God to make “something new” in you, in us. Ezechiel 36:26 says that God wants to put a new heart and a new spirit within people.
As we read in Luke 5, Jesus was chided for not following the protocols of fasting like other religious leaders. Jesus essentially told his critics that there was a time to fast and a time to feast. While God Himself was among the disciples, it was time to celebrate! There would be time to fast while they waited for their Jesus to return again. And then, Jesus said something that really seems to apply to us today as we say goodbye to 2010:
“…new wine must be poured into new wineskins…”
(See Luke 5: 36-39)
New wine was not compatible with old wineskins, since it caused these used containers to break, and all the wine would spill and be wasted. If God is to renew us within, we must be new containers! We need to be renewed and prepared and ready to receive a fresh revelation from God, to be open to His very presence!
The kind of prayer that could revolutionize a community and bring healing is especially expressed through II Chronicles 7:14. God speaks through His prophet and begins this way:
“If My People who are called by My Name would pray and humble themselves…”
In Psalm 35:13, King David says: “I humbled myself through fasting.”
Fasting is a spiritual practice that results in a deeper and richer prayer experience out of a need for more of God’s presence. In fact, fasting is a way for us to be more aware of our hunger for God by denying other things that feed us. It is a personal decision and can be done alone or with a community of believers.
As we begin the New Year, individuals are committing to fast from New Year Eve on Friday evening to New Year’s Day on Saturday evening as a way to prepare their heart and mind to be aligned with God,and gain more clarity about their lives and decisions. For some, it will be the beginning of adding the practice of fasting weekly or monthly or more frequently as part of their devotional habit.
Visit this post tomorrow for more information on fasting. On Wednesday, we’ll add additional resources for your personal study on the subject.
joy and hope and blessings!
-pastorSabine
