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    Converge Bible Studies: Fasting
    Converge Bible Studies: Fasting
    Converge Bible Studies: Fasting
    Ebook62 pages54 minutes

    Converge Bible Studies: Fasting

    By Ashlee Alley

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    About this ebook

    Fasting has been called the forgotten spiritual discipline. Although it is found throughout Scripture, it is often neglected by modern Christians. Is there power in fasting? Does it really make a difference? How does fasting relate to prayer? In this study, Ashlee Alley considers the biblical basis for fasting and explores ways modern Christians can make this ancient discipline part of their faith walk.

    Converge Bible Studies is a series of topical Bible studies based on the Common English Bible. Each title in the series consists of four studies on a common topic or theme. Converge can be used by small groups, classes, or individuals. Primary Scripture passages are included for ease of study, as are questions designed to encourage both personal reflection and group conversation. The topics and Scriptures in Converge come together to transform readers’ relationships with others, themselves, and God.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAbingdon Press
    Release dateAug 19, 2014
    ISBN9781426795619
    Converge Bible Studies: Fasting
    Author

    Ashlee Alley

    Ashlee Alley is the Clergy Development and Recruitment Coordinator of the Great Plains Annual Conference. She was formerly the campus minister at Southwestern College, a United Methodist college in Winfield, Kansas. Ashlee has a Master of Divinity degree from Asbury Theological Seminary and is an ordained deacon in the Great Plains Conference of the United Methodist Church. Ashlee is passionate about helping people discern their gifts for ministry and find a place to use them in the Church.

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      Book preview

      Converge Bible Studies - Ashlee Alley

      INTRODUCTION

      I’ve served in campus ministry for more than a decade. I spent most of that time serving as the director of a discipleship program that had, at its core, instruction in the spiritual disciplines. One year I was trying to recruit a bright young man who was the son of a pastor. I ran into his dad after I’d learned that the student would be attending another college and felt comfortable asking him about something that had troubled me since his son’s campus visit. At some point during our conversation when the student was on campus, I got the impression that he was writing off the program to which I was inviting him to belong. I’d remembered being surprised, as he seemed like a great fit. He was an active part of the ministry in his church, he had begun to identify a call to ministry, and he seemed to have many things in common with the students who are most content in the program that I directed. His dad finally confessed that his son had been turned off by the use of the words spiritual discipline. Apparently, the student had never heard the phrase before and had perceived it to imply a holier-than-thou attitude of self-righteousness and of being uptight. Nothing his dad could say could convince him otherwise. This prospective student may not have liked the sound of it, but discipline is spiritual; and it is an important aspect of becoming a disciple of Jesus.

      Discipline isn’t something that we naturally gravitate toward; but if we are serious about becoming disciples of Jesus, it is something that we must begin to understand. There are a variety of spiritual disciplines with which we have a great deal of familiarity: prayer, Bible study, worship, service. However, I would venture a guess that we would identify the spiritual discipline of fasting among the most confusing, difficult, and undesirable of them. In fact, for many people, fasting is the thing that we do before blood work so as to get the right read on our blood sugar. It’s just not something that is a common practice, and we can understand why: Fasting is difficult. Yet making a commitment to lay aside our human desires for a time of being filled with the work of prayer, self-reflection, and sacrifice makes us more faithful followers of Jesus.

      One reason we tend to have such a difficult time with fasting today is that we have such complicated issues with food. Food is nearly ubiquitous in America, yet 17.2 million households (or 14.5 percent of households) are considered food insecure. Still, nearly 70 percent of Americans are overweight. This contrast may be emblematic of our spiritual lives. We often neglect certain spiritual practices which are confusing, difficult, and require a sacrifice but then partake in those that fill us up and make us feel good, loved, and accepted. I am not saying that we should not feel good, loved, and accepted. However, we cannot truly know the fullness of what it means to be a Christian unless we understand firsthand the concept of what it means to be empty of ourselves so that we can be filled with Christ.

      John Wesley’s well known Covenant Prayer includes the line Let me be full; let me be empty. Let me have all things; let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. Perhaps he cultivated the ability to pray this through his regular practice of fasting. Wesley was known to fast twice weekly; and in the early years of his ministry, he joined with his fellow members of the group that was dubbed the Holy Club for their fasting. Their spiritual practices undergirded their personal faith and their visible ministry and led

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