Continuing on the theme of the spiritual disciplines needed if we are to walk the ‘narrow way’, this morning’s sermon focussed on prayer, festing, meditation and study. All these disciplines are things that have to be practised in private; motives are key; and they are a means to an end – not the end in themselves.
Prayer has to be private before it can be public; it is personal (Jesus taught that we pray to ‘Our Father in heaven’) and arises from our relationship with God, since we are His children (1 John 3:1). It also has to be persistent (see Luke 18 & the parable of the persistent widow, a parable given to show we “should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1)) and penitent (as Luke 18:9-14 shows). Prayer is also, as James reminds us in James 5, powerful. We engage in spiritual battle when we pray – one reason the devil tries to keep us from prayer!
Fasting also needs to be done privately and for the right reasons (see Matthew 6:16-18). Chiefly we fast and pray to seek God and to learn the discipline of self-denial, because our appetite for food is strong! As we fast, we prove the truth of Jesus’s words that “man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matt 4:4) Fasting can never be divorced from our daily living, though, as Isaiah 58 proves. God is not pleased with fasting that is just an arm-twisting exercise with no thought for others; the kind of fasting He has chosen is “to loose 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?” (Is 58:6-7)
Meditation means to ‘gnaw’ on God’s word, like a dog ‘worrying’ a bone, desperate to get every last bit of nutrition and enjoyment from it. Psalm 1:1-2 talks about the blessing that comes from meditating on God’s Word day and night, and there we have part of the problem: meditation requires time and so often that’s the thing we feel we lack. We wish we could ‘slow down time’ (as Jeremy Camp puts it), but we need to make the time to chew on God’s Word, understanding that we need the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment as we read; we need to read and understand so that the words become as sweet as honey to us (Rev 10:9-10).
Study involves both ‘a detailed critical inspection’ (such as is commanded by Paul before we take Communion in 1 Corinthians 11:28 and in 2 Corinthinas 13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.”) It also involves using every resource available to learn more about God and about His Word – and the resources available are immense! Nonetheless, we must be careful, for knowledge is not the end goal. Paul reminds us that, “We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.” (1 Cor 8:3) Ultimately, the aim of all these disciplines is not so that we can know everything or feel self-important; they are necessary so that we may “grow in grace and in a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18) in order that we may fulfil the greatest commandments, to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and love our neighbours as ourselves. We pray, we fast, we meditate and we study so that we may know God better and so that we may love Him and our neighbours, reflecting His image and spreading His fragrance wherever we go.