Why do Christians view fasting as an unusual habit? Why does the Chinese Methodist church seldom speak of fasting? Why do pastors rarely preach on fasting and prayer from the pulpit? Why does the western church not emphasize fasting? Why of John Wesley\u2019s five means of grace (prayer, Bible reading, communion, fasting, fellowship), is fasting the one most often neglected?<\/p>\n
John Piper, in his book A Hunger For God, mentioned that the western church does not emphasize fasting and prayer, because food has taken God\u2019s place. People no longer put God first, rather food is first.<\/p>\n
Chinese people also put food first, as a Chinese proverb says, food is the god of the people (\u6c11\u4ee5\u98df\u4e3a\u5929). But why do the Chinese, after becoming Christians, also emphasize food in the same way? Is it food or God? When will God replace food?<\/p>\n
Last December 6-8, a few hundred pastors and members of SCAC joined as one to fast for three days in the second annual Esther\u2019s fasting and prayer. On the last day, the Holy Spirit inspired me to write \u201cGod is the food of the people\u201d (\u6c11\u4ee5\u5929\u4e3a\u98df). God allowed me to see how as we learned to seek God together, we experienced Jesus\u2019 words, \u201cI am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty…I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.\u201d (John 6:35, 51)<\/span><\/p>\n Why do we need to fast and pray?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Fasting and prayer is for reaching the goals of unity in spirit, singleness of mind, and pleasing God. It is also because we need to honour God first, to hunger and thirst for him, receive God\u2019s rewards and long for His coming.<\/p>\n Honour God first:<\/strong> Fasting is to see the Lord Jesus as more important than anything including food, as the apostle Paul said: Hunger and thirst for God:<\/strong> Fasting is to hunger and thirst for God Himself, to seek him, as the psalmist said: Receive God\u2019s rewards:<\/strong> Fasting is the normal Christian life, and also a good deed that God rewards, as Jesus said: Long for Lord\u2019s return:<\/strong> Fasting is longing for the bridegroom Jesus to come again, because the bridegroom has left us.<\/p>\n \u201cHow can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.\u201d (Matt 9:15)<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.\u201d (Mark 2:20, Luke 5:35)<\/span><\/p>\n Besides the annual 3-day Esther\u2019s fast, all of us, both pastors and church members, need to be of one heart and mind in doing the weekly Wesleyan fasting and prayer. It starts after Thursday dinner until Friday afternoon at 3pm. Let us live the normal Christian life together. Let us honour God first, hunger and thirst for Him, receive His rewards, and long for His second coming.<\/p>\n Why do Christians view fasting as an unusual habit? Why does the Chinese Methodist church seldom speak of fasting? Why do pastors rarely preach on fasting and prayer from the pulpit? Why does the western church not emphasize fasting? Why of John Wesley\u2019s five means of grace (prayer, Bible reading, communion, fasting, fellowship), is fasting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[183,195,10],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cWhat is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ\u201d (Phil 3:8)<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201cYou, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.\u201d (Psa 63:1)<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhen you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.\u201d (Matt 6:16-18)<\/span><\/p>\nRev Dr Tie King Tai<\/span>
\nPresident of SCAC<\/span><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"