Fast - Day 18 - Removing the Gap

I think it would be safe to say that when the average Christian thinks of worship the first thing that comes to mind is attending a church service. Many churches even call their gatherings a worship service. The place we meet is often called the worship center. We feel comfortable with this distinction because it is in our human nature to separate our secular lives from our spiritual lives. We have our work, play, family, and whatever part of our lives and then there is our spiritual or church life. This separation, whether it be conscious or not, is the basis for the hypocrisy that makes Christians so weak in our faith and such poor witnesses of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Word of God defines worship and church. In Acts chapter two the church is defined as a coming together of the family of God for corporate worship, fellowship, outreach, ministry and discipleship. This kind of corporate worship or unity as the Body of Christ is important to the cause of Christ and for our own personal growth. (You can't be a productive and obedient Christ-follower without being a part of the Body we call the church.)

But real worship, real obedient personal worship of our Lord and Savior is described in Paul's letter to the church in Rome.

so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? 2 Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. Rom. 12:1-2

I think the main advantage one receives while fasting is that the constant focus on Jesus when one is tempted to eat puts one in an attitude of constant "practicing the presence of God." As you constantly practice the presence of God you can't help but worship Him by giving up your will and being a Holy Sacrifice at all times of the day. Even when you are distracted, as will happen out of habit and the constant prodding of the enemy, it is easier to redirect, repent, and get back into the attitude of the worship of God through Jesus.

When a Christian's worship is focused on a service or a day of the week, it is not truly worship and it is not a transforming relationship into the person that is in the middle of God's perfect will. If you are in the world for all but the time of the week you set aside for worship, you will be more like the world than like Jesus. If you spend your time worshiping our Lord while you are in the world, you will be transformed into the person who knows what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect His will really is.

Fasting helps me remove the gap between the secular and the spiritual. Fasting helps me practice being in the spiritual in all occasions so I can learn to be spiritual when I am not fasting.

I like this quote from Henry Blackaby's daily devotional. "God wants to reveal Himself to those around you by working mightily through you. He wants your family to see Christ in you each day. God wants to express His love through your life. There is a great difference between ""living the Christian life"" and allowing Christ to live His life through you."

an apprentice of Jesus
Royal