Spiritually complacent, needing to fast

[Chrysostom]

I have received your request and I thank God that He has stirred this desire in you and in your family to draw nearer to Him. To recognize complacency and to want discipline in reading the Scriptures and in prayer is itself a grace, and it is right to respond to it.

You speak of fasting, and that you intend to begin tomorrow as you rise early for work. This is good, if it is done in the right way. Fasting together with prayer brings great blessing. It humbles the soul when it is lifted up, it makes prayer more wakeful and fervent, it quenches wicked desires and helps us to stand against the spiritual enemy, yet prayer must come first and go with it. One who prays as he ought and fasts has wings that are doubled and lighter than the winds, not gaping or growing torpid in prayer but more vehement than fire. If your body is too weak to fast with great strictness, you are still not too weak for prayer and for turning away from luxury and excess, and even that is not far from fasting and helps to humble the heart.

Remember also that our Lord taught that fasting and prayer can be done in secret. While almsgiving can hardly be altogether concealed, prayer and fasting can be kept hidden from men. So do not fast to be seen by others, but to be seen by your Father who is in secret. Let it be accompanied by labors, by readings in the Scriptures, by watchfulness, and by a forgiving heart toward others, for these also are ways God has given us to find mercy.

You and your sister should encourage one another to be constant. The affairs of every day are like a storm and a battle, and we need arms. Prayer is a great weapon. If at the morning dawn we first make God favorable by prayer and supplication, we go forth to our work with much security. It is good to enjoy the prayers of others, and I will pray for you, but we ourselves must also be on the alert, giving ourselves to the Word and to prayer both early and at night. Godliness is the exercise that profits in every way, both in this life and in that which is to come, while bodily discipline alone profits only a little.

I will pray for you and for your family.

Father, I thank You that You hear us always. I ask You to draw this family closer to Yourself. Give them hunger for Your Word and steadfastness in prayer. Teach them to fast with humility and sincerity, not for show but for love of You, and to seek Your covering and protection through Christ alone. Make them wakeful, forgive their sins as they forgive others, and lead them to show mercy to those in need. Grant wisdom and health to each one, guide the hands of doctors and pharmacists, and help them to steward their bodies with self control and godliness, trusting You above all for strength and provision. Keep them through each day without shipwreck, and let Your will be done in their lives. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Continue in this purpose. Rise early, pray first, open the Scriptures daily even for a short time, and let fasting be joined always to prayer.

 

[Silas]

Your honesty about spiritual complacency is itself a work of God drawing you and your family closer to Him, and that desire to be nearer to Him is something to thank Him for.

Prayer rests on relationship. Jesus gave His disciples a pattern for prayer, not words to repeat without thought, but a structure that begins with knowing God as Father. If you can truly say Father because you have come to Him through Jesus Christ, then prayer is open to you as a child speaking to a father. If that relationship is not yet settled, the first prayer God desires is simply, God be merciful to me, a sinner, which brings you into His family and opens every other prayer.

The purpose of prayer is not to get our will done on earth but to see His will done. He makes His purposes known to our hearts, we speak them back to Him, and He then works to accomplish them. That is why Jesus taught us to pray, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When we treat prayer as a way to get our own wishes fulfilled we ask and do not receive, because we ask to spend what we want on ourselves. True prayer is worship and surrender, a consent for God to do what He has been wanting to do but will not do by forcing our will. It is not informing God of what He does not know, and it does not require long hours or impressive words to be valid. Every prayer recorded in Scripture is quite short. What matters is a fervent heart, because the earnest prayer of a righteous person that comes from deep need accomplishes much. And there is power when believers agree together, for Jesus said if two or three agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done.

The same is true of the Word. Scripture is rich and full, and wherever you read it will bless you. It is a treasure that shows you who God is and who you are. You do not need to read a great amount at once to be helped. A short, consistent time with an open heart, rejoicing in what you find as one who finds great riches, will do more than an occasional long effort made from guilt. As you and your sister seek discipline, ask God to give you hunger for His Word as worship, not only as duty.

Fasting is taught in both the Old and New Testaments. Jesus fasted forty days before His public ministry. Men like Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah fasted and prayed, often day and night, as they sought God for His people. When the disciples could not help a boy in great need, Jesus told them that kind comes out only by prayer and fasting. Fasting is not a way to impress God or to earn spiritual covering as a formula. It reverses our usual pattern. Normally we feed the physical life and starve the spiritual. In fasting and prayer we feed the spiritual life and for a time let the physical be weakened, so the inner person is strengthened to hear God more clearly. It is a deeply personal matter between you and God, not something done to be seen by others. If you set aside food as you seek Him, do it privately unto the Father, with prayer as worship and surrender to His will, and keep it simple and wise as you have responsibilities like early work. Even brief, silent prayers from the heart during the day are heard.

For your family, continue to seek Him together. You can agree together in prayer for one another, that God would draw each of you into closer fellowship with Him and make His will known to you.

Concerning your request about the prescription, we can bring your health before the Father and ask for His will to be done in your body. Our bodies belong to Him, and we want to steward them well for His glory. We can ask for wisdom for you and for those who provide your care, for provision according to His will, and for strength to make choices that honor Him and promote true health, trusting Him with the outcome rather than asking Him simply to bless our preferences.

May the Father draw you and your sister and your household into deeper fellowship with Himself through Jesus Christ, give you delight in His Word and in prayer, teach you to seek His kingdom and His will above all, and in His grace strengthen you as you set aside time to seek Him. May He grant you wisdom and peace as you trust Him with every need of body and soul, and may you know the full joy of seeing Him answer according to His perfect will.