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Wednesday Devo

Fast 2023 - Day 1

Welcome to our week of fasting and prayer here at the City Church. Prayer is part of our DNA at The City. We believe it is a vital part of our Christian life. This story about Jesus teaching his disciples helps us see the value of prayer. It also helps us know the value of one way Jesus coaches his disciples to pray: prayer with fasting.

Scripture Reading:

Matthew 17:16-20
16 So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.”
17 Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.
19 Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?”
20 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”  

Commentary:

In this story the disciples couldn’t cast out this demon. Jesus comes up and is able to cast the demon out. The disciples come to him afterward and, in a private moment, ask why they couldn’t cast the demon out.

Jesus gives them insight into why.  He told the disciples in verse 17 that they were a faithless and corrupt people. "Faithless" points to the fact that we are not connected enough to God.   Corrupt people are too connected to the world, and when you are too connected to the world, your confidence in God is not strong. It is watered down.

In verse 22, Jesus gives us a solution: Prayer and Fasting.

Prayer connects us with God.  The more time you spend with God, the more confidence you have in him. When we spend time with God in prayer, our faith grows. Our trust in God gets more robust. So, more prayer equals more connection with God, which increases our faith.

But Jesus added FASTING to prayer. Fasting disconnects us from the world. Fasting is not punishing yourself so you can suffer for God. It is disconnecting ourselves from the worldy comforts that can dominate our time, money and energy. As Christians, we can lose our influence as we embrace more and more of the world. To get that influence back, we have to push back the things of this world.

Questions For Reflection:

  1. How can I add prayer to my schedule to connect with God more?
  2. How can I add fasting periodically so that I disconnect from the world?
  3. What disconnections from the world don’t need to be reconnected after the fast?

Prayer:

God, I want to take time this week to grow closer to you.  Give me the discipline to add prayer to my schedule to help me do that.  Also, allow me to be more spontaneous with prayer throughout the day.  I want to be more disconnected from the world.  Holy Spirit, as I fast this week, help me discern how being too connected to the world impacts my life.  

This Week's City 7:

Try to commit to memory! 

4. Can a person be good enough to go to heaven? No. Because Jesus rose from the dead proving He is God, I believe a person is saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
(John 1:12, 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 4:1-25, 5:1-2, 6-11, 6:23, 10:1-4, 10:9; Galatians 3:26; Ephesians 2:1-9; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; Titus 3:4-7)

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