Stop—and Listen

Just the idea of not eating for an extended period of time is almost as bad as the headache I get if I try it. Fasting is not easy for me. However, I do know the alertness that comes when a person is closer to ‘running on empty’ than on ‘stuffed to the eyeballs’ with food.

The Bible says a bit about fasting. Christians have written books about how to do it. In my understanding, the intention is to have your focus off food and other bodily demands so you can concentrate on the Lord and on hearing His voice.

I’m told that the headaches happen to some people and drinking lots of water will help keep them away. Doesn’t work for me. What does work is eating far less than normal, just enough to quell hunger pangs. My mind becomes sharper and more alert.

Another aid to concentration is having my body doing something that requires little or no thought, like riding a stationery bike or walking. I can pray and concentrate on God far better when I’m pounding the sidewalk than I can when sitting in a chair or kneeling (my back interrupts all the time and yells at me).

Some of the most creative ideas come to me when I walk and pray. God explains perplexities, offers solutions to problems, and pops into my head innovative ways to do things. Instead of letting people think I’m so creative, I can tell them that it is God who gives me new ideas, and most of them come as a total surprise to me.

In the early church, the leaders knew how to focus so they could hear God. They too were often surprised by His input. As they gathered in Antioch and “while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’”

Their minds were focused in worship and made keen by ignoring the demands of their stomachs. They were in a position to hear what God wanted and He didn’t disappoint them. He asked that they send two men, named specifically, out to do a job for Him.

I wonder if they were stunned that He wanted them to send two of their most prominent leaders. Would they have listened had the idea come through either one of them? If Paul told them he wanted to go on this work, would they have been as willing to let him go?

Maybe they would. In our church, our pastor heard the call of God to leave our congregation for a time and go to another country where he would teach and do other tasks in a missionary school. He was shocked. He had a job. He didn’t know what to say to the rest of us. God kept nudging so he did make this known to the elders of the church, and they prayed and gave their immediate support. When it came to the congregation, we prayed seeking God’s will, realizing He wanted our best, our main leader to leave us for a few months. His answer came back and when we voted, the result was 100% yes to allow him to go. That was months ago. (Our pastor returns this week.)

I could record dozens of times, maybe hundreds, where God spoke and I heard Him because I was listening, particularly in a mind-set to listen. It doesn’t happen on a full belly that just wants to curl up and have a nap. It doesn’t happen to a mind dulled by too much television, or reading too many (and the wrong kind of) novels. I can’t hear God if the radio or tapes blare all day long, or if I’m talking on the phone, or doing the e-mail.

Oh, maybe. He can speak through the noises and interruptions and especially the people in my life, but when I focus on Him, face to face, eyes on Him, ears tuned it, stomach, TV, and the radio turned off, I am almost certain that His voice will touch me and tell me what He wants from me. Sometimes He makes no demands; He tells me just that He loves me and asks that I simply enjoy being with Him.