We need your Breath of Life, your Spirit-Wind that slowly fills our lungs with quiet life,
that slows our breathing away from
fight
or flight
billowing into our cells
the warm, still calmness of being.
Tag: Fasting
Tammie Grimm ~ Keeping the Feast and the Fast
Mary Fletcher was the first woman John Wesley permitted to preach in the 1770s. Her journals, diaries, and letters embody the largest collection of Methodist papers in existence with the sole exception of John Wesley’s papers. There are times I’ve wondered if a Lenten fast is nullified by Easter feasting. But in reading Mary Fletcher’s journals, noting the ebb and flow with which she made entries, I understood her seasons of profuse writing were not negated by the seasons of terseness.
Interview ~ Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett on Lent
Lent brings with it a unique dynamic that emphasizes both the individual and the communal nature of our life together.
Justus Hunter ~ Lent: There Is a River and There Is a City
Lent is a season of clarity. We already sit among the ashes. We already sit in cities made in our own image.
Andy Stoddard ~ To Observe a Holy Lent
We fast to clear away the noise and the pain and the hurt. We fast to tune our hearts to his grace. We fast, even in the midst of our pain and brokenness, not to be torn down.
No, we fast to be built up. To be reminded of what matters and where life is found. We fast so that our ears can properly hear that voice of God, calling out to us.
Carolyn Moore ~ How to Pray When Your Prayer Life Is on the Rocks
In seasons when my faith has faltered, I can invariably point to a fumbled prayer life. Prayer empowers and gives vision; the lack of it weakens trust and causes me to wander.
Jack Jackson ~ Wesley’s 5:2 Fast
For Wesley, the purpose of fasting was not to lose weight or to be more physically healthy. Wesley believed fasting was crucial for the spiritual health of Jesus’ disciples.
Talbot Davis ~ Could You Give Up Porn for Lent? A Pastoral Perspective on Life Change
The rise of the internet has created a perfect storm for growing numbers of men to become addicted. It is available. It is anonymous. I suspect no other generation of men – or their pastors – had such a collision of forces that are the same time both irresistible and destructive.
Maxie Dunnam ~ Prayer and Fasting: Embracing Voluntary Weakness
Fasting is more than denying ourselves food. It is choosing to act out, by temporarily denying ourselves food, that we do not live by bread alone. We are completely dependent upon God, and we deliberately choose voluntary weakness. We become identifiably humble in the face of the problems with which we are dealing. We admit to each other, and primarily to God: only you can get us through this “mess.”