Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(Matt. 6:1-18)
Motive matters
We should practice acts of faith and righteousness to honor God, not ourselves, to
seek His approval, not man’s.
Committed Christians are people who are motivated by love, joy and grace. They
care little about appearances. They are service/faithfulness oriented. They seek to
be used by God.
Prayer
Private (always?)
Lord’s Prayer
“Give us this day our daily bread” acknowledges God’s genuine concern
and provision for us, and accepts the day by day nature of the Christian
experience.
God alone has authority to forgive sins (Isa. 43:25, 44:22, Dan.
9:9, Mark 2:6)
“Led us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” asks that God not
abandon us to the influence of evil.
Prayer that falls in line with God’s own direction/intentions (Jer. 29:11-12,
Matt. 6:10 & Luke 11:2, 1 John 5:14-15)
David prays for his house in accord with God’s promise to him (2
Sam. 7:27)
The 4 Gospels show that Jesus had a persistent prayer life (Luke
22:44)
The prayer of one acting in a righteous manner (2 Kings 20:1-6, Ps. 34:15,
Prov. 15:8, James 5:16-18, 1 Pe. 3:12)
Prayer of those acting in a manner that offends God (Jer. 7:16-18, see also
Ps. 66:18)
Fasting
Designed to help us to focus on, and demonstrate earnestness in, repentance and
prayer.
The story goes that there was a worldwide convention where Satan and his
demons schemed of how to effectively tempt the followers of Christ. In
the devil’s opening address to his followers, he said, “We can’t keep
Christians from going to church but we can steal their time. Let’s keep
them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to
occupy their minds… keep them busy, busy, busy! And when they meet
for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they
leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions. Let’s crowd their
lives with so many good things that they have no time to seek the best
things.”
Most examples of fasting found in the Scriptures relate to food, and on occasion,
water. Moses and Jesus are but two examples (See Deut. 9:9; Matt. 4:2). There are
at least two others, however. (1) The Jews fasted not only from food but also from
work on the Day of Atonement. They did this to symbolize that it was God’s work
and not their own that would atone for their sins (See Lev. 23:26-28). (2)
Likewise, the Apostle Paul addresses the topic of fasting in 1 Cor. 7:4-5. There he
provides some guidelines for married couples who have elected to fast from their
sexual relationship with each other for a time of prayer.
Fasting has often been used by God’s people when there is a special urgency
about the concerns they lift to the Father. This was Ezra’s motivation as he was
about to lead a group of exiles back to Jerusalem (See Ezra 8:21-23).