A Call for Prayer and Fasting
Preparing for Commitment Sunday
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.
Hebrews 12:1-3, NLT
As we draw near to commitment Sunday, I’d like to encourage you to consider a time of prayer and fasting. I know. We’re 21st century Protestants. We don’t talk about fasting. But Fasting is one of the spiritual disciplines that have been rooted in our Methodist tradition from its founding and can deepen your prayer life.
When you do a short fast, you are taking extra time to focus on God. It’s more than fasting from food and drink; it’s fasting from things that would be a distraction to prayer. Don’t watch your regular TV shows; TiVo them for later. Keep your mind focused on God for a short period, meditating on scripture, your prayers to God, and most importantly, listening.
What would the fast look like?
I’m seeking people in our church to fast and pray on Saturday night as we prepare for Sunday morning, a time to commit to God for the coming year. After sundown, avoid eating or drinking. You don’t have to skip dinner just eat dinner early.
Spend time as a family or personally in prayer. Reflect on the scripture passage for this Sunday. Read it multiple times and in different translations. Focus on the words that stand out to you. Ask God to speak to you through the passage.
Pray for our church. Ask God to bring unity to our church in the coming year and that we would be his living example in our community. Pray that we will be strong and reach out to those around us. Pray that we will embrace each other and those outside of our walls. Pray that God will show you your role in our church for the next year and how you can help us accomplish our vision to the community. Ask God how you can help further the Kingdom of God.
Spend time in prayer over your Financial and Service Commitments for 2017. Sunday you will be presenting those to God at the end of the service. Ask God to help you discern how you can give to help build his Kingdom and help reach those who don’t yet know him, as well a help build up his body.
Together, we can make 2017 a year like no other. We can bring people closer to God and make an impact for the Kingdom.
I'll be praying with you,
Faith
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Faith Parry serves as our Associate Pastor, and has been at the church since 2015. When she's not preaching and teaching, she enjoys documentaries and TV. Read more about Faith here.
Just pick a stupid pen, already!
Click or Twist?
Have you ever had a moment where you ask yourself “Am I really having this conversation?” Maybe it’s when you met your hero and actually got to talk them. Maybe it was while talking to customer service and the person on the other side of the counter just doesn’t get it. But my absolute favorite ones are when it’s because of something hilariously trivial. One of my favorite examples is an ongoing conversation our church staff has about pens. When I mean ongoing, we’ve probably spent hours trying to decide on what pen to buy. And then we have to go through the process again every so often when we run out of pens.
We have sample pens sent to us. We pass them around, critique the look of the pen (does it look like it’s good quality, does it match our branding colors, would it look stylish in a pocket protector), we test how it writes (ball point, blue or black ink, ultra fine or broad point or somewhere in between), we talk about the weight of the pen (is it too heavy, does the lightness make it feel cheap) and the most important question - what type of cap is there? Is it retractable with a push click on top, or a twist, or the old fashioned cap? Then we have to weigh all that against the price point of the pen. Is it worth it to pay an extra few pennies to get this style of pen that we like more than this other pen that isn’t our favorite but is cheaper?
And by now you are probably thinking the same thing I usually think. Just pick a stupid pen, already! They all work just fine. Welcome to consumerism. 4imprint.com has almost 2000 different pens to chose from. Each one of those pens was designed by somebody who had a particular clientele in mind, but at the end of the day they just leave a mark on paper. They all exist to transfer ink to some surface, all of the other things that make them unique are just extras.
Pens vs. Jesus
This holiday season, you will find plenty of things that will seem important; trying to find the perfect present for somebody, putting up more lights than that one guy across the street, or talking about the latest Starbucks cup design. After a while all of these things feel like we’re just talking about pens again.
Christmas is supposed to be about celebrating the birth of Jesus; not giving, not perpetual hope, not spending time with family. Even though it’s not a traditional Christmas passage, Paul summarized it perfectly:
[Jesus], though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Philippians 2:6-8
Christmas matters because it’s about Jesus, and Jesus matters because through his unconditional love and sacrifice for us, he has saved us all.
-Nathan
Nathan Persell serves as our Youth Director. When he's not leading devotions and playing basketball with teenagers, he enjoys disc golf and bike riding. Learn more about Nathan here.
Is our Time Ours?
Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!
Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.
Romans 12:9-18, NLT
Have you ever thought about who your time belongs to? In the church world, we like to use the word "steward" a lot. It's a really old word. The people who study words (whoever they are) believe it dates back to around 900 AD. That's really Old English.
What was a Steward?
A steward was a person who managed someone else's household and property. He would live in a house that was owned by the lord of the area. It was usually a really nice house. He would then maintain the equivalent of three counties today for the lord. He would make decisions as if they were the lord's decisions, but in reality the house and land still belonged to the lord.
Today, the dictionary defines steward as "a person who manages another's property or financial affairs; one who administers anything as the agent of another or others." That seems pretty much in line with what it meant back in 900 AD.
What about Time?
Have you ever thought about what it means to be a good steward of your time? If we do everything on this earth for our Lord because we are his stewards, then everything we have is to serve him. Of course, we take care of our family in the process, but the purpose is to build his Kingdom here.
How then should we spend our time? We have to work or take care of our families. We have to eat, sleep, and exercise. What do we do with the rest of it?
This week, I challenge you to look at where your time goes. Do you plan time to dedicate to God, or do you just give him whatever time is left over? Do you treat time as a resource or is it just a fact of life? I'd love to hear what you come up with. Leave your comments below.
See you Sunday!
-Faith
CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEK'S FAITH NOTES
Faith Parry serves as our Associate Pastor, and has been at the church since 2015. When she's not preaching and teaching, she enjoys documentaries and TV. Read more about Faith here.
Your Life is a Gift From God
“The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’"
Matthew 25:23 (NLT)
In almost every area of life, we understand the idea of stewardship encapsulated in Matthew 25:14-30. We understand it and live by it. To get a promotion at work, you have to demonstrate competence at your current level of responsibility. Sometimes parents expect their children to prove their diligence at caring for a goldfish before they get a dog.
It works this way in the kingdom of God as well. God determines how trustworthy we are by what we do with the skills and resources we have been entrusted with.
This idea is graphically demonstrated in the passage cited above. The master entrusts a sum of money to three different servants according to their abilities. That last phrase is crucial. The master did not entrust the servants with more than they could handle, but with amounts that were fully in their capabilities. He then expected them to use the money for the master’s benefit.
It works that way for us as well. God is the source of everything we have. Our resources, opportunities, skills and even life itself are gifts from God. We were given these gifts to be used for the benefit of God’s kingdom. As we prove ourselves faithful with the resources we have, God will grant us more – because we have proved trustworthy.
As we continue in the Christian to the Core series, stewardship of God’s resources is an important core value of the Christian life. All we have and all we are is a gift from God, and we are stewards of those gifts. As a wise person once said, “Your life is a gift from God - what you do with that life is God’s gift to you.”
-Pastor Alan
CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEK'S FAITH NOTES.
Alan Cassady serves as Senior Pastor at Navarre UMC, and has been at the church since 2011. When he's not preaching and teaching, he enjoys sci-fi movies and FSU Football. Read more about Alan here.
I don't like to pray.
I don't like to pray.
There, I said it.
At least, I don't like to pray in the traditional sense of the word. It's not that I don't have anything to say - I'm fairly outspoken and opinionated for an introvert - it's that I only like to talk under certain circumstances. My examples of prayer as a kid were all about what the person praying had to say, and I got those examples from three very different traditions. My home church was liturgical, so the person praying at the front was often following a script or using "King James English" that I found hard to understand as a child. The summer camp where I learned about Jesus was in the Holiness tradition, so prayer often involved "laying on hands" and people crying out to God in what just seemed like wails. The kids in my school were primarily Southern Baptist and their prayers often seemed like random sentences sprinkled with the words "just" and "Lord."
So, in retrospect, it's easy to see where my dislike for prayer came in. Being raised by mental health professionals, like I was, teaches you that your role in a conversation is just as much to listen as it is to speak. So when I was learning about prayer, and learning that it was about having a conversation with God, I never felt comfortable because it felt like I was the only person saying anything.
Resources
As I've gotten older, I've had my perceptions of prayer challenged. If what I experienced as a kid was prayer, I always felt like it wasn't anything that could benefit me. It wasn't until I started to really take time to focus in on spiritual disciplines that I understood that prayer was just as much about listening as it was about speaking. As someone who deals with ADHD, it's often hard to sit still and quiet and "listen." So I've had to provide myself with some resources:
- Written Prayers
It's not cheating. It's not insincere. It's a real thing that you can use to grow closer to God. You don't have to reinvent the wheel; written prayers are a powerful tool to enhance your prayer life. Some of my favorite resources for pre-written prayer are The Book of Common Prayer, from the Episcopal Church, and Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. The thing I enjoy about them, especially the one from Claiborne, is that they offer a series of prayers for a particular day of the year. It's different then a daily devotional because it's written to help you have a conversation with God, not just obtain a deeper level of knowledge.
Equally as powerful for people like myself who like to write is writing down your own prayers in a journal or on your computer. This can be a great way to clear your head when things feel crazy. I'm a sucker for a good pen and a Field Notes notebook, personally.
- Music
I was praying with music before I ever realized I was doing it. As a musician, I find that my most intimate moments with God are when I sit down behind the piano without an agenda and start to play. That's obviously not the answer for everyone, but it's a powerful one for me. For non-musicians, good worship music can help you guide and focus your prayers and help you feel comfortable speaking less and listening more.
- Lectio Divina
Lectio Divina is Latin for "divine reading," and describes an ancient monastic practice of using Scripture to guide our prayers. Again, it's about speaking less and listening more. This is one of the earliest forms of Christian prayer, and the Upper Room describes the process like this: (click over to read more)
- Read the scripture slowly. Watch for a key phrase or word that jumps out at you or promises to have special meaning for you. It is better to dwell profoundly on one word or phrase than to skim the surface of several chapters. Read with your own life and choices in mind.
- Reflect on a word or phrase. Let the special word or phrase that you discovered in the first phase sink into your heart. Bring mind, will and emotions to the task. Be like Mary, Jesus’ mother, who heard of the angel’s announcement and “treasured” and “pondered” what she had heard (Luke 2:19).
- Respond to what you have read. Form a prayer that expresses your response to the idea, then “pray it back to God.” What you have read is woven through what you tell God.
- Rest in God’s word. Let the text soak into your deepest being, savoring an encounter with God and truth. When ready, move toward the moment in which you ask God to show you how to live out what you have experienced.
Just do it.
There are so many different ways to pray, and many different resources to help you out. Even if you're like me and you don't like to pray in the way you've seen it done before, be wiling to step out and try something new. You can find an unexpected level of comfort and support when you just look around and see what's out there.
As our nation feels increasingly divided and in turmoil, I've found comfort in a written prayer from the United Methodist Book of Worship. It's attributed to the Church of Pakistan, and is a good example of enhancing your prayer life with the words of others. Remember, you don't always have to reinvent the wheel.
Look graciously, O Lord, upon this land.
Where it is in pride, subdue it.
Where it is in need, supply it.
Where it is in error, rectify it.
Where it is in default, restore it.
And where it holds to that which is just and compassionate, support it.
Amen.
-Matt
Matt Dailey serves as Worship Director at Navarre UMC, and has been at the church since 2013. When he's not leading worship and designing graphics, he enjoys baseball, comic books and team trivia (his team is nationally ranked. #micdrop). Read more about Matt here.