ONE SERVICE AT 10:15AMJOIN US FOR EASTER

Blog

Fasting Together | July 2021

July 08, 2021

                                                                                                             

Throughout each month in 2021, we will be praying and fasting through our membership covenant; asking God to help us hunger for his glory and to be faithful to fulfill the things we have committed to each other as church members. These are commitments he has called us to live out together according to his word. Likewise, each month we will be praying and fasting for significant cultural issues of our day and asking the Lord for his truth and righteousness to be known throughout the world. 



Fasting Together: July 13, 2021

  • Membership Covenant Topic: Our Intentional Care of Our Members Spiritual Good
    • Being slow to take offense and quick to forgive and seek forgiveness (James 1:19).
    • Exercising Christian care and watchfulness over others (Galatians 6:1-2).
    • Refusing to participate in gossip (Ephesians 4:29).
  • Cultural Issue: That We Are Salt and Light 
    • With the light of Christ within us, we push back the darkness (John 1:5; 8:12).
    • We are the salt of the earth (Matt 5:13) 

Fast begins after dinner on Monday (July 12), forgoing breakfast and lunch on Tuesday (July 13), then breaking the fast by eating dinner on Tuesday. Our encouragement throughout the day is to pray, meditate, and consider these things before the Lord.

Sing:


Read and Reflect:


For The Church: Our Intentional Care of Our Members Spiritual Good
“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” – Galatians 6:1–2

Galatians 6:1–2 reminds us that we are to live sacrificial and intentional in our spiritual care with one another. Christians bear with one another, which means, we must be willing to carry both personally and eternally significant things in the lives of our brothers and sisters. And trust that they will help carry ours. 

This makes the Christian community different from any other community found in society. 

As we are being transformed into the image of God through the Spirit (2 Cor 3:16) and growing up into maturity in Christ in every way (Eph 4:15), we exercise Christian care and watchfulness over one another. We encourage one another away from sin and toward Christ, we bear our brothers and sisters burdens (Gal 6:2), we speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15), we refuse to gossip or slander our brother (Eph 4:29), and we seek to be reconciled with one another when relationships are fractured (Matt 5:24). 

At the heart of this responsibility is the laying down our own lives for the sake of the spiritual good of our brothers and sisters. And they do the same for our spiritual good… until we all reach maturity. Speaking the truth in love, as referred to in Eph 4:15, is at the heart of this. “Love,” in this verse, is agape love… which is how God loves us… pure, willful, and sacrificial love. This type of "love" benefits the loved one, and so we speak the truth to one another with the motivation to build up… and not tear down. We remind each other of the gospel and God’s promises (2 Pet 1:12), we encourage the fainthearted, and we admonish the idle (1 Thess 5:14). 

Would you pray and fast this week that God would continue to grow us and mature us into the type of Christian fellowship that considers first what is best, in Christ, for our brothers and sisters?

For Our World: That We Are Salt and Light
“Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world..” – Phil 2:14–15

Christ is the light of the world. He is the only hope for darkened, sinful, humanity. And in his perfect will and sovereign plan, he has formed a people for himself that serve to be light in a world full of darkness. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8:12).” He continued later in John’s letter, “While you have the light [Himself], believe in the light, that you may become sons of light (John 12:38).” 

The Church is called to let our lights shine before a twisted and corrupt culture (Phil 2:14–15). Despite walking in darkness before, we are now walking in the light through faith (Eph 5:8). 

How do we let our lights shine before men? 

Our lives are to stand in contrast to those of the rest of the world, and the world takes notice of us of our good works (Matt 5:14–16). John tells us that our good works are rooted in the love of Christ,  “At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes (1 John 2:8–11).

We are to love our brothers and sisters, and the world benefits from it. We forgive each other, as our sins have been forgiven in Christ. We bear with one another and encourage one another. We display a loving fellowship with one another to a lost world that desperately needs to see truth. 

As well, we are to serve as salt to the decaying world around us (Matt 5:13). We are called to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (Matt 5:43–44). We are to show the lost world compassion and to treat them with mercy, just as Christ cared for us with compassion and mercy while we were still sinners (Rom 5:8). Our weapon is not retaliation but love through Christ and prayer for them.  

Please pray that we, church, would be a light on a hill... contrasted greatly with the darkness in Raleigh. 

Prayer points:

  • Pray that we would love and serve one another purely, sacrificially, and willfully. 
  • Pray that God grants us courage to speak the truth in love to our brothers and sisters.
  • Pray that we would be intentional with one another in our conversations and discipleship settings. 
  • Pray that we would be intentional to reconcile with one another when our relationships are fractured. 
  • Pray that we would consider our brothers and sisters personal and eternal needs and help carry them. 
  • Pray that CCC would shine as a light in darkness.  
  • Pray that the community around us would take notice of our genuine gospel love toward one another.
  • Pray that we would love those who stand against Christ and the gospel, displaying mercy and compassion toward them.
  • Pray that we would be intentional in our representation of Christ and the gospel to a lost world. 
  • Pray for those who walk in darkness to come to faith in Christ and walk in the light. 


Helpful fasting resources:


Fasting from (ideas):

  • Food
  • Technology 
  • Entertainment 
  • Social Media/News

Previous Page