Lenten Devotional, Day 4: Restored Gladness, True Fasting, True Greatness
Dear Saints,
Reminder: For me this Lenten exercise is not so much about being liturgical, i.e. bringing certain forms or rituals or patterns into worship/devotion. In a sense I'm co-opting Lent to simply encourage us to meet with Jesus.
Our Scriptures today are Psalm 51 (a fourth time, it is a rich ore body to mine), Isaiah 58:1–12 (the flagship Passage on fasting in all the Bible), and Matthew 18:1—7 (a study in greatness ministry).
RESTORED GLADNESS:
A young woman recently shared with me this poetic, spiritual sense of winter: "Who can stand before His cold (Psalm 147:17)? I replied: We cannot stand before pruning, dormancy, gasping circumstances, and the like. But we can learn to kneel, yea prostrate ourselves and trust...yes, trust spring will come!
For just around the bend from wait:
A Word warm with breath will blow...
And icy shards which pared thy soul
Will now revive as a melting flow.
William Cowper, who knew spiritual frost-bite, at times even hypothermia, put it best in a hymnal lyric:
'His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flow’r.'
And so, in this "cold" season, let us pray and believe with the inspired Psalmist:
"Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice (Psalm 51:8). And again, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit" (Psalm 51:12).
Listen, feel, it hastens: "For, behold, the winter is past...flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land" (Song of Songs 2:11–12).
TRUE FASTING:
I think I will do a sermon on fasting during Lent. I think it is much misunderstood and a seldom-practiced grace. The heart of the confusion is this: Treating fasting as transactional v. positional. This explanation will be crass, but no matter the window dressing, I believe this describes most fasting: 'God, I'm giving up ABC for a time, when I am through reward me with XYZ.' This approach seeks a blessing based on bargaining. What then is true fasting, at least at its core? 'Lord, I'm setting myself before you, and even fasting prop/s and pleasure/s I use to distract myself from things as they really are. Truth is I've strayed from the pathway of peace and the cost of numbing that pain is too great. Re-position me, re-align me, re-connect me to You. You are my "exceeding great reward (Genesis 15:1). Indeed: "You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:1).'
TRUE GREATNESS:
Is it power, riches, fame, talent, smartness, style, handsome/pretty, athletic prowess, followers, influence, popularity, first place? Well, I just preached the answer to that question last Sunday, so in summary: The greatest is the one who serves all in service to One.
The Very Best is/in Christ,
tIM