Easter Article

This Friday is the anniversary of the most profound display of love the world has ever known. The magnitude of love is matched only by the magnitude of sorrow that day represents. As such, we will be holding a very important service on Friday night at 6:30 pm. This is a service that you don't want to miss. If you are new to New Life Christian Community you may be surprised to learn that we, as a body of believers, will be fasting from Good Friday night until Easter Sunday morning.

On Good Friday, we mourn (with a glorious hope!) the death of our Savior Jesus Christ. Though He would be raised three days later, it is our sin that required His dreadful death. That is a sobering thought. Our sin should move us to tears, especially when we remember that Christ chose to die for our sins.

That being said, we should have the attitude of Nehemiah in Nehemiah 1:4. He writes, “As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” May our sin move us to a time of fasting and prayer with the expected hope that awaits us on Sunday morning! At 8:00 am, on Sunday we will break our fast with communion and a pot-luck breakfast. It is one of our favorite meals of the year. Following breakfast, the service will start at 9:30 am, as usual.

Please fast only if you believe that the Lord is calling you to participate. We do not believe that anyone can earn any kind of favor with God from our fasting. We don’t fast to ensure that God listens to our prayers. We fast in order for God to work in us. We fast because we long to be more like Christ. Jesus fasted on several occasions
(especially during times of trial and prayer). Furthermore, fasting is not necessarily abstinence from food. You may feel called to abstain from something other than food. Perhaps God would call you to give up your time on the internet. You may feel called to abstain from certain kinds of foods. Whatever you choose to refrain from (if God calls you to fast) let it be something that you wouldn’t normally want to give up. You may be wondering… Why would God call us to fast at all? Here are a few reasons to consider:

1. Fasting helps us to reorder our priorities. Too often we, as sinful beings, make decisions based upon our physical desires (not that this is always bad) rather than upon God’s desires. When our physical desires contradict God’s desires, and we choose our physical desires rather than God’s, we sin. Fasting is a practical way to make decisions for reasons other than for our physical desires. It does not guarantee that we will be basing our decisions upon God’s desires, but it certainly helps us to break the habit of making all our decisions because of physical delight. Let not our bellies be our god. In this way, with practice, it can help us to begin our decision-making process with God Almighty.

2. Fasting helps us to pray more emphatically. I am not sure why, but there is a direct connection between food and our prayer life. When we are overly full (with a good meal), it can be very difficult to focus on any conversation at all (let alone one with God). We have all experienced this difficulty after a large meal (sleep calls us loudly!). When we fast we are more alert than ever! There is a “sense of God’s presence as our bodies are freed from digesting and processing food. This enables us to focus on eternal spiritual realities that are much more important” (Grudem, Systematic Theology, p. 391). Those who have fasted can attest to this aspect of prayer and fasting.

3. Fasting helps us to humbly confess our sins to God. Just as a baby knows when she is hungry (while letting the rest of the world know), when we fast we too cannot help but acknowledge our need for food. This aspect of growth is also experienced when we go through a very trying time. When our physical weakness is obviously before us we are reminded that we truly need God. It forces us to acknowledge the fact that we are mortal beings.


In Scripture, almost always, fasting goes hand in hand with prayer. If you would like to aid your prayer life (and who wouldn’t), I would strongly encourage you seek the Lord in some sort of fast. Please remember, we will be fasting in order that we might be in prayer together.

Easter is a time when we acknowledge that Jesus gave up everything for us. He, as Paul writes in Philippians 2, “emptied Himself” and became “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” In Galatians 2:20 Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” If we have been crucified with Christ and are willing to become “obedient to the point of death”, let us humble ourselves this weekend (of all weekends) and seek God’s face fervently. Use the time that you would have otherwise spent over meals and meal preparation to seek God’s face in prayer.

Want to know what to pray for? Continue reading for some suggestions and please add your own to the list.
1. Pray for family members who don’t yet know the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. Pray that God might give you an opportunity to talk to your neighbors about Jesus Christ.
3. Pray for missionaries who are overseas. Pray for missionaries who are not overseas.
4. Pray that the good news of Jesus Christ would continue to be spread to all those in the St. Croix River Valley. That we would not stop ministering here until everyone knows Jesus Christ!
5. Pray that God would give you new eyes – to see the world as He does.
6. Parents, pray for your children. Children, pray for your parents.
7. Pray for the marriages at New Life.