A Prayer and Fasting Devotional
Our world exists in tension. The public square and our personal experience testify to this every day, reminding us that the world is at once the product of a benevolent, creator God AND the consequence of His rebellious creatures. One of the ways that we feel this tension is that we receive the world as a composite of hungers, thirsts, and desires, each of which can draw us to, or away from, the living God. For this reason, whenever the people of God mobilize in prayer and fasting, we do nothing less than invite God to do Gospel work by bringing about the death and resurrection of hunger, both in and around us.Scripture gives us a window into this reality through Jesus' own teaching regarding hunger. In John's Gospel, he promises that "whoever comes to me shall not hunger" (John 6:35). However, in Matthew's Gospel, he promises satisfaction to "those who hunger and thirst" (Matthew 5:6). Herein lies another tension. Jesus commends both the absence and presence of hunger. But, how do we resolve this?
It quickly becomes apparent that Jesus is referring to two species of hunger. One promises to end our appetite for that which leaves us empty. Another beckons us to increase our desires for that which truly fills, namely "righteousness." Together, they remind us to experience Christ's worth as superior to the desires that hinder us from hungering for righteousness in and around us. So, as we continue this season of prayer and fasting, let us distinguish between these two hungers.
To this end, let us set our faces to the Lord by:
1. Reading and reflecting on Matthew 5:1-12 where Jesus presents the hunger and thirst for righteousness, exhorting us to higher elevation than Moses towards Christ, the new and decisive lawgiver who stands on a new mountain with a radical ethic that reflects what it means to "hunger and thirst for righteousness" as His people.
2. Praying and fasting for the death of unrighteous hunger that seeks comfort and compromise in us and on these influential campuses, city-centers, and culture writ large.
3. Praying and fasting for the resurrection of righteous hunger that seeks a kingdom mindset and lifestyle in us and on these influential campuses, city-centers, and culture writ large.
May these small steps guide us as we seek the Lord unto transformation in our lives as well as the academic and cosmopolitan epicenters in our culture. In so doing, may He enable us to experience righteousness via the death of false appetites and the resurrection of Christ-like, kingdom-advancing hungers and thirsts in their place.
Blessings,
Tim Adhikari
Ministry Director at Princeton
As you discover what God is teaching you through this process, or see your relationship with Him deepening, please take a moment to encourage others by sharing what you are learning, or take a moment to be encouraged by others' stories >
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