dennis martin papp

Twenty-One • Day Ten

Choose Joy

Jesus offered instruction on fasting in Matthew 6

 

And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

 

In this passage, our Master calls out a practice of His times. When people fasted and wanted to gain attention, they would try to look as miserable as possible. They would go unbathed, uncombed and unhappy. Someone might pass by and say, "Poor guy, he's fasting again." This would draw a subtle smile to the faster's face. In that moment, he gained what the wanted. He was noticed.

 

Jesus does not chastise the desire to be noticed. He just lets us know that we need to play to the right audience--The audience of ONE. He commands us to wash our faces and anoint our heads with oil. In Jewish thinking anointing one’s head and washing one’s face was not done for daily hygiene or cosmetic reasons. Rather, it was reserved for joyous occasions.

 

We are at day ten, almost half way through the fast. At the half way point we might be feeling some tiny miseries. Lack of caffeine is giving us headaches. Lack of sugar is making us edgy or sleepy. Lack of noise (Brian) is making our minds race. Lack of variety (Dennis) is making us bored. We may feel a slight justification in being touchy, cranky and outwardly unpleasant. This is all part of the learning of the fast. Jesus is calling us to push aside the temptation to show off the fast. We are being called, in the face of physical depravation, to exhibit a spirit of fullness.

 

Think of it, we are just shy of half way! In a marathon, we'd be around the twelve mile marker. A lot is behind us. A lot is ahead of us. We are in the thick of it. Today, choose joy! Don't excuse a crabby disposition. Choose joy!

Today's Prayer

I want to stick with the practice from yesterday. Settle in. Quiet yourself in the presence of God. Be very aware of His closeness. Behold God beholding you, and smiling. Now, let Him tell you who needs prayer or what needs prayer. What does God bring to your mind? Who does God bring to your mind? Pray, guided by the Spirit. Pray.

Final Thoughts

Misery comes in many forms. You may be doing a good job putting on a good face. For me, opening that fridge leads to an internal groan. I'm bored. I want some variety. I want some spice! I'm tempted to reach for something different. The words of Jesus remind me that while you may not see me, my Father does. Today I will open the fridge and choose joy!

A Song

Twenty-One • Day Nine

Adjustments

We're heading into the second week of the fast. Yesterday when Brian and I talked about our week-one experiences, we noted two insights. First, we encounter things in a multi-day fast that we would not face in just one day. God takes us through phases that can only be unfolded over days. You'll find this to be true in week two. Week two will feel different than the first. Be aware of this dynamic. God has something fresh for you this week, different from the last. The second insight is that these movements have a predictable nature. While we are all wired differently, if you are sharing your experiences with friends, you might be having several moments of saying, "Yes, me too!"

The start of the second week is a good time to think through adjustments. Take a few moments to reflect on the first week. What worked? What didn't? What went as you expected? What was different than you thought it would be? The answers unearthed can serve as the basis for some adjustments. Some realize going into week two that they set goals that we just too high. More often though, we find that we set them a little low. That's not a bad thing. We set goals that we thought were attainable. Yet, in their attainability there is a lack of stretch. It may be good to ratchet up the intensity of the fast.

Another area for reflection is the prayer or prayers you are bringing to God. Do they meet the standard of audacious? Are they out there...only God could do this? Are the requests we are bringing to Him safe? Could they be more courageous? More dangerous? Further, maybe God is moving you to pray for something else or something more. If something won't let you go, it could very well be the nudge of God.

After all this, you may conclude that all is good. No adjustments are needed. However, if you do need to adjust, the start of week two is a great time to reset.

Today's Prayer

Have you ever promised to pray for someone? A friend shares a burden and we respond by offering to pray for them. Unfortunately, we do not always follow through on the promise. A wise guide taught me to make a different promise. Instead of promising to pray, say that you will pray for them as God brings them to mind. This is not a cop out. It is relying on the Spirit to guide our prayers. The Bible tells us that the Spirit knows what to pray even when we do not (Romans 8:26-27). So here is today's prayer. Quiet yourself and pray for whomever God brings to mind. Sit with Him and let Him guide you to the person who needs your prayer.

Final Thoughts

It may be that the adjustment you need to make is to join us in fasting and praying. Maybe until now you've been happy others are doing this, but have not joined up. Do it! Join us. See what God does.

A Song

Twenty-One • Day Eight

Our post on the Sundays of the fast is the message from Sunday morning. If you missed it, you can watch it here or on our channel.

 

Twenty-One • Day Seven

GRATITUDE

 

Saturday is a day to savor God's goodness.

 

Reflect on what He has done with a thankful heart.

 

Recount the many ways He is for you!

 

A Song

 

You have time today. Quiet yourself. Click the link. Give thanks.

 

The acoustic version starts with some talking. Don't skip it.

 

Twenty-One • Day Six

GPS

"Where am I with God?" By now you may have a bit more clarity with our question. The answer may even have surprised you. It surprised me.

I got out this morning for a walk. My walking habit has been in a bad place lately. I wake every day planning to go, waiting for the sun to rise, only to get distracted and put it off until tomorrow. Well, today was tomorrow! I even put it on my to do list: walk.

The canal path is icy this January. Last year I got some spikes that band around my shoes. I purchased them after landing on my backside in the middle of Cemetery Road...not a place you want to lay too long, either literally or figuratively. Walking was slower and noisier that usual thanks to the crunching ice. 

As I walked I prayed. I pray best when walking. It is easy to stay alert and to tie topics to spots along the path. I walked and I prayed. I walked out two miles, then turned to walk back. On the way back I started praying through my three audacious prayers. This year mine are rather private, not the type I feel free to share. I prayed over the first one. It is prayer I have prayed for a long time with no answer. Just silence. I talked with God about how we've been here before. I walked this same walk a year ago praying the same prayer. 

On to the second. This one is new. I've prayed about it before but it is new to the fast. It is a heavy lift, one that would require God to open blind eyes and melt icy hearts. I feel a strong burden to pray it, yet I do not anticipate a quick reply.

I came around the bend toward the long, straight part of the path. I started saying words that I've been praying for months, listing the names and recounting the situation. It was then that it happened. It caught me by surprise. I was praying hard words with great intensity. Words flowed. Hard words. Spirited words. Yes, angry words. Words of disappointment and pain, frustration and confusion. I wasn't ready for it. It was so spontaneous, so unexpected. Then I circled back to the first request with a similar honest, vulnerable, raw explosion.

In the moments that followed I had a "What was that?" conversation with myself. But I already knew what it was. It was God's Spirit answering the question that I've been asking but avoiding. I now knew exactly where I was with God. I can't say I'm totally happy with the location. Don't worry, this isn't about sin or disobedience. It's about praying audaciously when the mountain doesn't budge, the waters won't part and there is no manna to collect or burning bush revelation. It's about believing God's promises even when circumstances seem to call the promises into question. It's about hoping when hope is thread bare.

It took a few days to get to this place, to get to the answer. It took some distance from the things that fill me with a false fullness. 

How about you? Has the GPS revealed your location yet? Where are you with God?

Today's Prayer

Years back a wise person taught me to pray this question: What is the truest thing you can say to God right now? That might be a prayer worth praying today. See where it takes you. That question makes me think of another quote: Solitude is the place where we wait for God in the midst of the unfixable things in our lives. Is it possible that the unfixable things are the things God is using to draw out the truth of your location with Him?

Final Thought

Worship Team meets most Thursdays to rehearse for Sunday. We're going to sing two great songs Sunday! They feel a little different. Fresh notes. New voices. I was listening to this songs and knew I'd have to post it. 

A Song

This is the truest thing I can say and want to say to God tonight as I head off to sleep.

 

Twenty-One • Day Five

Inventory Revisited

We spent yesterday surveying our souls, asking the probing question, "Where am I with God?" We wanted to locate ourselves in relation to Him. Our assignment was to condense our answer to a word or a very short phrase. We're going to stay here for another day. As we do, we will attempt to approach the question from another direction, or maybe more accurately, from another source. 

By this point in the fast you may be sensing some internal movement. One way that movement reveals itself is through emotions. You may be noticing a greater emotional intensity. Things feel more. For me, I'd say I am feeling something of an emotional rawness. My sadness is sadder, almost to the point of grief. At the same time, little points of joy and hope feel so joyful and hopeful! 

What's that all about? I believe God speaks to us through our emotions. Unfortunately, most of us have so much emotional wreckage that we have not learned how to probe our emotions the way God desires. Some of us stuff emotions. Others deny them. Still others explode. We tend to see an emotion as an end in itself rather than a pathway of discovery. We say things like, "I'm so mad" but have no real idea why. We may have a sense of emotional lightness, but do not give the reason much thought.

The evangelical tradition lays another whole layer of complexity upon our perceptions of emotion. We are people of facts. We focus on objective truth. Emotions are subjective and can be seen as misleading. Emotions have been depicted at the caboose on a three-car train. The engine is truth and the coal car is faith. Decouple emotions, the caboose, and the train can still ride (though rather joylessly). Emotions are nice, but not necessary is the thinking.

There was a wise theologian from years past who taught those he was discipling to pay especially close attention to emotions. He saw them as a way to get at the question, "Where am I with God?" He called on people to do a short, ten-minute review of the day. They were to focus on what he called consolation and desolation, lighter moments and darker moments. We might ask, "For what was I most grateful today?" and "For what was I least grateful?"

As you continue your inventory, think about what you are feeling. Anger? Sadness? Joy? Delight? Flat? Ecstatic? Down? Sit in that emotion's space. What are your dominant feelings this day? As you work through them, ask yourself what this tells you about your relationship with God. I suspect yesterday we answered that question with our heads. Now let's take it to the heart.

Today's Prayer

Identify an emotion or two that you are feeling and pray from that space. That's what David did in the Psalms. When he was sad or felt defeated, he lamented. He cried with joy. He smiled in satisfaction. Use that emotion as a starting point for your conversation with God. Talk to Him about how you feel (or maybe don't feel).

Final Thought

This could be a practice you add to your daily routine. Take ten minutes toward the end of the day for an emotional review. I'd encourage it especially for those of us who have a hard time identifying and expressing our feelings.

A Song

Here's another soul-soaking moment. Let it wash over you.

 

Twenty-One • Day Four

Inventory

An important element of a spiritual season like this one is to stop long enough to assess. In some ways we have hit a pause button on mindlessness. We are gaining an awareness of God in all things. Our spiritual sensitivities are intensified.

Awareness of God heightens self-awareness. Where we are in relation to Him? This weekend I was asked to write a personal note in a Bible. I circled 1 John 2:28, noting that this is one of my favorite verses: And now, dear children, abide in Him, so that when He appears we may be confident and unashamed before Him at his coming. I still remember discovering this verse in high school. It motivates me. John starts with the concept of abiding, continuing, remaining in Christ, just like we talked about Sunday. We are to live conscious of His constant presence, praying without ceasing. Then he gives a two-fold admonition. Because of Christ's imminent (any moment) return, we are to live in such a way that we can hold our heads high in confidence and not shrink back in shame. The fact that He could come back at any moment motivates us to be caught doing the right thing when He appears!

Awareness of God's presence wakes us up! We no live just going though the motions. We realize that every motion matters. Every one. And so, an assessment is in order. God is with me all the time. Jesus could appear at any moment. The Spirit has taken up residence in me. I am His house, His temple. How does that awareness impact my intentions and actions, my motives and motions?

Let's start with one simple assessment question today. It is not a question that I expect you to be able to answer in three minutes or less. In fact, you may find it lingering for the rest of the fast. For now, let it fill the thoughts of this day. Here it is: Where am I with God? Another way to ask it: How is my relationship with God? If possible, boil it down to a word by tomorrow morning. If not a word, a very short sentence. 

How are we going to get at the answer? By asking. Just like David did, ask:

Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, oh God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

Throughout the day, let the Spirit reveal the answer to you. Let Him direct you. By tomorrow have a word or short phrase answering the question, "Where am I with God?"

Today's Prayer

In boldness and humility, ask God's Spirit to search you. Open yourself to what He might say.

Final Thoughts

Different personalities approach personal assessments differently. Some love the opportunity to hear truth so they can correct course. Some enter a state of self-loathing. Still others cower at the thought of any less-than-postive input. The Spirit is a kind and gentle teacher. He has your best interests at heart. Be open to His approach. John 3 tell us that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to save it. Receive what He tells you in the spirit it is given, a spirit of love.

The Song

I'm including a song every day for slowing. Stop and listen. If it is a Bethel song, you might have to book an hour! Drink it in. Let Him speak.

 

Twenty-One • Day Three

Noticing

As I walked through my rather ordinary Monday, do you know what I noticed? That I noticed more. Perhaps that was the case for you as well. You experienced a heightened sense of noticing. For example, you may have noticed the number of times that you reached for the thing that you are intentionally pushing away, the object of your fast. Maybe you had a greater sensitivity to the day overall. You noticed that you were living in a sacred space in a way that is not always at the forefront of your attention. Hopefully you noticed God more. There was a greater sense of God in all things, both in you and around you.

In the Bible, a poignant example of noticing is found in three of the Gospels: Matthew 9:18-25, Mark 5:25–34, Luke 8:43–48. Mark's version is the most detailed and personal. A woman had suffered a disease for twelve long years. She exhausted her resources seeking a cure, but the condition only grew worse. Mark shares her deepest thoughts and desires: "If I touch even His garments, I will be made well." She is desperate, and her desperation drew her to the only person with an answer. Healing came immediately with the touch. 

The next moments are rather intense. Jesus senses, He notices that something has happened. Mark says that Jesus perceived that power had gone out from Him. Can you imagine this? Jesus is being pressed from every side, yet His spiritual sensitive is at such a heightened level that He recognizes a touch that is unlike all the other nudges and bumps. Luke lets us know that Peter tries to reason away what Jesus sensed in the moment. Soon the woman steps up and admits what happened. All three Gospels record a similar response from Jesus: "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well. Go in peace."

Jesus wants this way of living for us. He wants us, in the middle of the whirling commotion of life, to notice a sacred moment. Prayer and fasting heighten our ability to notice, just like they did for Jesus. As you walk into this day, allow the practice of fasting and prayer to heighten your spiritual senses. See and hear God around you. In the middle of the noise, hear the still small voice. As the crowds presses in, notice the touch.

Today's Prayer

Let your prayer be formed by the woman's story. Twelve years is a long time to look for a solution, to long for a solution. She had consulted the experts of her time. She had poured out her resources looking for an answer. She just wanted to be normal again. As you think of your audacious prayer, or as you continue to form your prayer, how does it compare to the desperation and the impossibility of the woman's desire? She prayed an audacious prayer. She had been in pain for a long time, and had tried everything. That's the kind of prayer Jesus wants us to bring to Him during these twenty-one days. Go ahead, touch the hem of His robe. 

Final Thoughts

You've heard the description of the story. Now let's take it in. Read each version out loud or listen to them on an app. First Matthew's version, then Luke's and finally Mark's. Here's the Dwell App Link. After listening, look more closely at each passage. Compare the way each tells the story. What did they include? What details are shared in all three? Which are exclusive, mentioned only by one? Spend time with the woman. Hear her desperation. Walk with her in the story. Let the response of Jesus fill your heart. Receive His message of healing and peace. 

 

 

Twenty-One • Day Two

Denial and Delight

I still have the taste of Sunday lingering in my soul. It was a good day, everything about it. I stood at the outside door before and after church for the first time since March. The lack of time between four services did not allow for connecting time. For so many reasons I sensed a deeper connection yesterday. And then there was the music! The Blessing and Graves into Gardens. It was the soul-soaking rain my dry heart needed. As I write these words I do not want the day to end. It was a good day!

On this first weekday of the fast the song lyrics continue to ring in my ears: I searched the world, but it couldn't fill me...

We are on a seemingly endless quest to fill the void within us. Philosopher Blaise Pascal identifies that hole as a God-shaped void. He wrote, "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made know through Jesus Christ."

Why do we fast? Denial sweeps away all of the substitutes we consume to fill the void that can only be filled by God. We stop consuming long enough to experience a sense of hunger. It is in the hunger that we realize we've been masking our truest desire with empty fillers. So we push some things away. We embrace denial to experience true delight.

God made us to delight in Him. Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." It is easy to misinterpret this verse. The psalmist is not telling us that the key to getting what we want is to delight in God. He's actually saying that new desires are implanted within us as we delight in the Lord. Delighting in Him actually changes our appetites and desires. Denying ourselves is the pathway to true delight. It is only when feel our emptiness that we can ever know that there is a source that truly satisfies. 

Today's Prayer

Bold, Humble, Audacious Prayers. As you sit with God in this quiet moment, have you yet identified the request or requests you are placing before Him during the fast? In the days to come I will suggest items for prayer. For today, focus on the prayer or prayers you are bringing to Him. Write them down. Clearly identify your focus. What will you be asking of God for the weeks of the fast?

Final Thoughts

You got a few minutes? I'm embedding the song from yesterday. Listen to it again. You'll be blown away at how well the message fits with the fast. Hear the words: Oh there's nothing, better than You! Pray God will make these words real to you and to our church in the days to come.

 

Twenty-One • Day One

Our post on the Sundays of the fast is the message from Sunday morning. If you missed it, you can watch it here or on our channel.