Can I suggest one of the reasons humanity is so prone to perpetuating systems of injustice is due to our fear?

It is fear keeping us from prioritizing someone else’s needs above our own, concerned about having our needs neglected. It is fear that keeps us hoarding our resources – our money, our food, our space, our time – believing the lie that if we give generously, there won’t be enough left for me. It is fear preventing us from listening to opposing viewpoints, certain that our moral or theological high-ground will crumble. It is fear keeping us from opening our spirits from the healing Jesus offers, because that would require changing. And fear is preventing us from partnering with God to build His Kingdom. 

What’s one remedy to fear?

I invite you to practice the spiritual discipline of fasting. “But Lent is months away, Pastor Mel!” Yes, yes it is. But the call to fast goes beyond a season in the calendar. “When you fast,” Jesus says, asserting in his Sermon on the Mount that fasting is an assumed part of our spiritual rhythms (Matthew 5-7). 

In fasting, we empty ourselves in order to identify our coping strategies and sins.

Fasting exposes how we try to keep hunger at bay and gain a sense of well-being by devouring creature comforts. Through self-denial we begin to recognize what controls us.

Adele Calhoun in Spiritual Disciplines Handbook

Fasting is an invitation to open our hands and loosen our grip on whatever brings us a sense of comfort and security. In letting go of these self-made securities, we are inviting the Holy Spirit to fill us God’s self. In God’s Kingdom there is no fear, there is no scarcity. In God’s Kingdom, there’s grace, there’s love, there’s abundance. 

And so in fasting we declare these Kingdom Truths even if we can’t quite fully believe them. As we deliberately let go of something we need, something we crave, we open ourselves to being filled with the Holy Spirit, to having our minds renewed, to being made a new creation over and over again. 

So, friends, here’s a few ideas: Pick one day each week to fast from breakfast and lunch. Notice your hunger and use it as a reminder to pray. Maybe replace your mealtime with reading Scripture or listening to a viewpoint you would normally avoid. There are 4 weeks until the election of 2020 and if there’s ever a time to fast and pray it’s now. 

However your fast looks, whether it involves food or media or something different, and whenever it takes place, whether a few hours or a day a week, may your fasting open you to the generous filling of the Holy Spirit. May you be changed and renewed.