A Call to Prayer and Fasting

In reaction to my recent post about fasting, a friend of mine gave me a book on the topic: Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting, by Derek Prince. He got it from the IHOP onething conference. In the introduction, Prince quotes President Abraham Lincoln's proclamation of a national day of prayer and fasting from 1863. I was blown away and inspired by Lincoln's steadfast faith, and the example he made to the entire country. This is the type of thing we don't learn in American history class, but should!

A Proclamation.

Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln

Fast with us.

I go to Victory Christian Center in New Wilmington, PA. Yesterday the pastor preached about fasting, and asked our church body to do a week-long fast together, starting today. I realized that I'd never heard a sermon on fasting before. It's something I've wanted to learn more about, though. It seems that fasting is a lost discipline in the US Church! Our consumerism and lifestyles of instant gratification don't easily support the habit.

Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline explains fasting this way:

"More than any other Discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. This is a wonderful benefit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface. If pride controls us, it will be revealed almost immediately. David writes: ‘I humbled my soul with fasting’ (Psalm 69:10). Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear - if they are within us, they will surface during fasting. At first we will rationalise that our anger is due to our hunger; then we will realise that we are angry because the spirit of anger is within us. We can rejoice in this knowledge because we know that healing is available through the power of Christ. (69)"

My friend Lauren and I were talking about it, and she read Isaiah 58 to me. It's a pretty amazing chapter that I hadn't really paid attention to before. Israel seemed to be doing everything right, and yet God wasn't answering them. They say, "Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?" and God answers, "Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire... Is it a fast like this which I choose... is it for bowing one's head like a reed, and for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast?" And the answer of course, is, "no!"

Their hearts were in the wrong place. That's first priority for God- our hearts. I love that about Him; He's not into all that showy, ritualistic stuff. God says the fast that He chooses is to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to divide our bread with the hungry, and to bring the homeless poor into our houses!

Then your light will break out like the dawn,
And your recovery will speedily spring forth;
And your righteousness will go before you;
The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am '
If you remove the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
And if you give yourself to the hungry
And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness
And your gloom will become like midday.

And the LORD will continually guide you,
And satisfy your desire in scorched places,
And give strength to your bones;
And you will be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.

How beautiful is that!?

So, I ask you, will you fast with us this week? Ask the LORD what He would have you do; what can you give up this week that would make more room for Him? It could be fasting lunch and having prayer time instead; it could be giving up TV or Facebook for the week; it could be drinking only water and juice for the week- whatever the LORD would lead you to do. Our country is at a pivotal point right now. It's a new presidency, a new year, and a good day to seek the LORD!