How To Join The Monthly Fast – #FastTheFirst

by Jed CoppengerBible, Christian living, Church, fast, fasting, Ministry, Practical Ministry, PrayerPosted on No Comments

I love food as much as the next guy. So why in the world did I invite Redemption City Church to fast with me this Tuesday, January 21, and every 1st of the month this year (Feb. 1, March 1, April 1, etc.)?

Well, when you read the Bible, you see people fasting all over the place. Fasting is simply abstaining from food for a specific purpose. A quick look at the 77 times the Bible talks about fasting shows that Moses fasted, Israel fasted, Daniel fasted, Nehemiah fasted, Jesus fasted, the early church fasted, just to name a few. When you fast, you’re in good company. Fasting was such a normal part of following God that when Jesus taught on it, he didn’t make an argument for it, he simply started by saying, “when you fast…”, not “if…” (Matt. 6:16-18).

The reasons for fasting are many and meaningful. After Moses fasted he received the 10 commandments (Ex. 34:28). God blessed Israel’s fast with a stunning victory over the Edomites (2 Chron. 20:2-3). Daniel received the guidance he needed during his fast (Dan. 9:3). Before Nehemiah built Jerusalem’s broken walls, an achievement that stunned everyone who understood the situation, he fasted (Neh. 1:4). After Jesus’ fast, he overcame the Enemy behind all the enemies of God in the wilderness (Luke 4:2). As the early church was asking for clarity on who to set apart for ministry, they fasted (Acts 13:2-3). The reasons for fasting are as many as the reasons for praying. Yet, fasting seems to be focused on unusually challenging problems where a special “breakthrough” is needed.

When you look at the history of the church, you see that Christians from other time periods read Scripture in a way that led them to fast. Here’s a few examples. The Didache, which is kind of a “how to do church” manual to help Christians understand what the Bible taught, prescribed two “fast days” a week: Wednesday and Friday. The 2nd Council of Orleans called for regular fasting in the 6th century. John Wesley urged Christians to fast on Wednesday and Fridays as well.

Will you join me as I join so many others who have come before us and fast?

If you will, here are a couple of practical suggestions about fasting, most of which I got from Dr. Ronnie Floyd who has written at length on the subject.

Find Your Day – You can fast any day you want. I’m encouraging you to join me this Tuesday, January 20th, on a fast and then the 1st day of each month for the rest of the year. If you need to miss a day, but want to be a part of what we’re doing, aim for a day during the first week of the month. #FastTheFirst

Find Your Level – When the Scripture talks about fasting, it is talking about abstinence from food. On the day you fast, let me encourage you to participate at some level. That might mean that you miss one meal, or two meals, or all the meals. Perhaps you can’t miss any meals? That’s okay, you can abstain from something else, like social media. Whatever it is, find a level that allows you to participate in the fast.

Set Specific Goals – I believe that “specificity leads to visibility” in our prayer lives. When we get specific with our prayers we give the invisible God an opportunity to become visible in our lives in a way he wouldn’t without that specific request. When we start getting specific with our requests, we start seeing him more in our daily lives. The same is true for fasting. Let me encourage you to ask God to answer specific requests in 3 areas: your relationship with him, something in your life, and for your church.

Plan Your Time – During the time when you would normally do the thing that you are abstaining from, like eating, use that time to read Scripture and pray. The examples of fasting in the Bible show us that the people of God “withdrew” in some way from their normal activities to encounter God. Let’s do the same, whether that is 15 minutes or an hour.

What might God have in store for us if we follow his word and make fasting a regular part of our relationship with him? How might our lives be different? What about the lives of those we’d be praying for? Join me on this simple, God-honoring journey. Let’s see God work in fresh ways this year.

4 Childlike Traits That Every Christian Needs To See God Work Through Prayer

by Jed CoppengerBible, Christian living, Church, Ministry, Practical Ministry, Prayer, UncategorizedPosted on No Comments

God can do more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime. Whether creating the universe with a word, splitting the Red Sea for the Israelites, enabling Daniel to walk out of a lion’s den unscratched, raising Lazarus from the dead with a word, walking Peter out of prison the night before he was supposed to be executed, the Bible portrays a God whose power and love is unstoppable and unending.

That’s why we pray. Or, at least, that’s one of the reasons we pray.

Unfortunately, most people don’t have a daily prayer life. The reasons for this lack of prayer are many, but the proposed solution to it usually includes something along the lines of “I’ll try harder” or “I need to be more disciplined.”

But I’ve found over the years that a change in prayer life won’t happen in any lasting way by simply trying to be more disciplined. I’ve had more success in my own prayer life and in helping others with theirs, in trying to be more childlike, not more disciplined.

It’s interesting that when Jesus taught on prayer, he didn’t start by telling us to be more disciplined, he said to be more childlike. When he teaches us to say, “Our Father,” he is teaching us to think of prayer as a Father-Child conversation. Jesus didn’t call people to a higher, more sophisticated spiritual level to pray differently, he told them to act like children.

As I’ve meditated on this truth over the years, it’s radically changed my prayer life from a “once in a while” prayer life to an “every day, throughout the day” prayer life. This change hasn’t happened because I’m strong, but because I’m more aware of my weaknesses. The more you grow up in Christ, the more childlike you become. And I’ve found that there are four childlike traits that every christian needs to see God work through their prayers.

Childlike Faith

Just about every child has a moment or a stage where they think their parents can do anything. That’s the feeling Jesus wants us to have about “Our Father in heaven” (Matt. 6:9). Because he is “in heaven,” he is unstoppable. Jesus is connecting the Father we speak to in prayer with the God “who is in the heavens and does whatever he pleases” (Ps. 115:3). Why is this so important? Because your view of God determines your practice of prayer. If you think he can help you today with your work, relationships, finances, or whatever, you’ll ask. If you don’t, you won’t. Battle the specific sin of unbelief that says, “God can’t really make a difference in my life enough today for me to ask him for that help in prayer.”

  • What does your prayer life say about God’s abilities?

Childlike boldness

Most kids go through a long season where they don’t think twice about barging into their parents’ room in the middle of the night. Whether it’s a bad dream, they can’t find their blanket, or something else, they never apologize for the disruption. That’s a boldness that no one else could get away with. And that’s precisely what you need to have, especially once you understand the greatness of God. God’s power is matched by his love. That’s why we can ask the amazing God who “is in heaven” to give us “daily bread” (Matt. 6:11). Because he’s “our Father” we can approach his throne like a child, boldly (Heb. 4:12).

How can we, an unholy people, approach a holy God? Because Jesus bought our access with his blood. Our childlike boldness is a blood-bought boldness. He took our place on the cross to secure a space for us in his family. Because of this, we can be bold as we talk to God, asking God anything and everything.Do your kids get organized before they talk to you? Hopefully, not normally. Do they only talk to you about subjects that are “proper”? Nope. When you’re bold like a child, you feel the freedom to talk to God about what’s really going on in your life.

  • What does your prayer life say about God’s love? Do you have a high enough view of God’s love that you think he will help you today if it’s best for you?

Childlike Specificity

The older I get, the more I struggle to come up with “gift ideas” for Christmas and for my birthday. It didn’t used to be this way. When I was a kid, I could throw out all kinds of worthless things I was dying to have. My kids are the same. Most are. I believe God uniquely loves specific prayer requests from his kids. Why? When we get specific with our requests, we give the invisible God an opportunity to become visible in our lives in a way he wouldn’t be able to without that request. Specificity leads to visibility. Don’t know what to get specific about? Pray your problems. Pray your plans. Pray your Bible. Fight the “vague prayer syndrome” and write down specific enough prayer requests that you’d know it, if God answered it.

  • If God answered every one of your specific, written prayer requests, what would be different for you, your loved ones, your church, and the world?

Childlike Trust

“Ouch! I’m telling!” I heard my youngest son say, just before he made his way into the kitchen. After he told me what happened, I said to him, “I’ll take care of it.” With that, his countenance changed and he joyfully walked right back where he came from. I overheard him self-righteously say to his sibling, “Dad said he’ll take care of it.”

He didn’t, of course, know “how” or even “when” I’d take care of it. Frankly, shout out to imperfect parents like me, he didn’t know “if” I would take care of it. He simply knew “who” would take care of it. Because he knew who would take care of his problem, he walked out of that conversation without the burden he brought into it.

That burden-relieving, peace-producing, change-you-right-where-you-are-from-the-inside-out kind of interaction in prayer only happens when there is an unshakable trust in the one to whom you just presented your problem. That’s childlike trust. That’s wrapped up in the “your kingdom come, your will be done” (Matt. 6:10). If you have a God who is great enough to do something about your problems and plans, you have a God who is great enough to have a better way forward that you don’t understand. That’s why you have to trust God to do what’s best with your request. If you don’t trust him, you won’t rest. You won’t experience the “peace that transcends all understanding” (Phil. 4:6-7). Thank him for doing what’s best with your request before you know what he’ll do with it because you know WHO you’re talking to, not HOW he’ll handle it.

  • Is there any area where you need to trust God to do what’s best for you, even if it’s the thing you most fear?

How different could this year be, if we started asking the God who can do more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime, to help us everyday? How different might our relationships, work, inner sense of well being, churches, country, world, be if we starting acting like children who have a Father in heaven who does whatever he pleases?

5 Simple Steps Christians Take To Experience God’s Power In His Word

by Jed CoppengerBible, Christian living, Redemption City ChurchPosted on No Comments

God’s words are powerful. Whether creating all things with his words (Gen 1), bringing a dead man to life with his words (John 11:38-44), or calling Abram to himself with his words (Gen 12:1-3), just to name a few examples that show the power of God’s words, God wants us to know that his words are unlike any other words in the world. The words recorded in the Bible are “breathed out,” authored by, him (2 Tim 3:16). That’s why, when the writer of Psalm 119 was struggling and felt like his life was “in the dust,” he prayed that God would “give him life through his word” (Ps 119:25).

Unfortunately, most Christians are missing out on the power available to them in God’s word. Last year, a study conducted by Lifeway Research found that, “A third of Americans who attend a Protestant church regularly (32%) say they read the Bible personally every day. Around a quarter (27%) say they read it a few times a week.” The numbers go even further down when less frequent church attendance.

I’m not sure how many of the 62.2 million “Protestant Christians” (that is, non-Catholic Christians) would be considered “regular attenders,” but let’s just say for the sake of this post that all of them are. That would mean that about 43.54 million of them are walking through the day without the amazing power (not to mention wisdom, grace, love, etc.) that is uniquely found in God’s word.

Think about how different the flavor of American Christianity would be if that many people were being empowered by God’s word? How different would our relationships be? How much more hopeful do you think we would be? More loving? More at peace? The list could go on and on. When we leave our Bibles on the shelves we leave a lot of power on the table.

That’s why I LOVE helping people get into God’s word on a daily basis. I want to see more people experiencing God’s power on a daily basis. And listen, while reading through the Bible in a year is an awesome goal to pursue, I’d encourage you to prioritize daily Bible reading. If you are in God’s word each day, but don’t make it through in a year, that’s a WIN!

If you want to experience God’s powerful presence in his word, I’ve found that the following 5 steps help Christians experience God’s power in his word.

Find The Right Bible – When I worked for a Bible publisher, we saw a study that said that Christians choose their Bibles for about 4 different reasons. Some Christians chose their Bible because of it’s cover, some the type of translation, and others chose the translation their pastor preached from. Whatever your reasons are, look on Amazon and find what you like best. If you’re new to Bible reading, I highly recommend you use a study Bible (ESV or CSB). These study bibles enable you to understand God’s powerful word with greater confidence and ease.

Use A Bible Reading Plan – Most people engage with God’s word consistently when they have some kind of plan. I’d encourage you to start in the NT and read a Psalm a day. But for a wide range of plans, check out this help list from our friends at the Gospel Coalition. As you start a plan, if you are connecting with a particular passage, please feel the freedom to “get behind.” I’ve spent weeks coming back to a passage of Scripture plenty of times. When I was tempted to try to “catch up” by reading a large portion of Scripture quickly, I had to remind myself that it’s not about “keeping up,” it’s about a daily encounter with God in his word.

Observe, Interpret, And Apply – When you read the Bible with a few key questions in the back of your mind, it increases the impact of the Bible reading in your life. That’s why so many Bible readers have been helped by observing, interpreting, and applying the passage that they are reading. When they observe the passage, they ask “what does it say?” When they interpret the passage, they ask “what does it mean?” When they apply the passage, they ask “how should I respond?” For a little more information about how to think about this, read this helpful post.

Find And Prioritize A Regular Devotion Time – Identify and prioritize the best time for you to spend 15-30 minutes in reading God’s word. I’ve found that going to bed a little earlier so that I can get up a little fresher, pays off big time with my Bible reading. Maybe you’re more of a night owl. However you are wired, find a time to get into God’s word. Whatever it is, understand that the Enemy wants to do anything he can to stop you from taking these simple, but significant steps (Eph 6:10-20).

Ask God To Help You Do What He Says – Once you understand what God is telling you to do, ask him to help you do it. Don’t just read your Bible, pray your Bible. Ask your heavenly Father to help his “kingdom come” in whatever specific way you happen to be reading about that day.

God has fresh, unlimited power available for you each day in his word. Ask him to help you experience it as you experience him each day in 2020.