When a season of prayer begins with the horrifying news of a mass shooting, children dead, parents grieving, students terrified….prayers must take on that reality.
When people believe the words “praying” are soft and inactive, they may not know how Jesus taught us to pray. The words “Your Kingdom Come” are words that convict us to the core. What Kingdoms have to go for God’s Kingdome to come?
The practice of fasting is not about not about abstaining from food or drink. Isaiah prophesies the kind of fasting and prayer Jesus practiced:
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to lose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and God will say: Here am I.” From Isaiah 58
So there it is. When we’re praying we are saying, Let your Kingdom come through me. Let Your Kingdom destroy the kingdoms of:
Violence
Narcissism
Hate
Sword-words
Anger
Pride
Deceit
Envy
Greed
Fear
Gluttony
Power
Sloth
Let US bring your Kingdom in our home, schools, communities, to Washington and the wider world. Then we will call, and the Lord will answer; we will cry for help, and God will say: Here am I.
Praying and fasting,
Clare and Scott