Deuteronomy 16:3-4 - Do not eat it
with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread
of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste—so that all the days of
your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt. Let
no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not
let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain
until morning.
Moses me sure his final words included a reminder that God
required them to stop and praise God at certain times throughout the year…starting
with Passover… the beginning of their journey as God’s people. During these 7
days they gave up the leaven in their bread…and ate only bread that had been prepared
with no type of leaven at all. It was an important reminder of how God moved
quickly and swiftly to answer their prayers for God to save them from the harsh
conditions of slavery under the Egyptians.
It got me thinking… I have never celebrated a traditional Passover.
For me …the New Testament simply doesn’t support keeping these ritualistic
celebrations. But as I read this…I couldn’t help but wonder if this kind of radical
mindset might just be exactly what God needs to see from those of us that love
him and want to see the evil in the world settle down a bit.
It’s called fasting in todays’ terms…and it is most
definitely supported in the New Testament. Simply pick the need that is the
most urgent in your heart…and give up something…for a period of time that you and
God decide….and use the time involved to pray more earnestly than you ever have
for God to move in answer to your request.
You will praise God and make him so happy when he sees your
seriousness before him. And even if his
answer is still no when your fast is done…He will be glorified in some way from
your actions. You will be blessed in new
ways…and become even more in love with God than you ever dreamed.
Father…..thank you for the reminder that sometimes my
prayers need to take the most serious form possible...so you will see the
seriousness of my faith in you. Forgive me for the times that I take my time in
prayer to you for granted. Help me to
seek you more often…and focus my thoughts on you more intensely by using
fasting to show my intense desire for you to move in a situation I pray for.
Amen.
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