Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Fasting for the Little Ones

Here is a chapter from John Piper's excellent book, A Hunger for God.

An excerpt:
But I wonder if many of the young scholars and activists (now in their forties and fifties!) whom [Francis Schaeffer] inspired need to hear a balancing word about the power of prayer and fasting, not as an alternative to thinking and acting, but as a radical foundation that says, “The victory belongs to the Lord, even if the horse (of scholarship and politics) is made ready for the day of battle” (see Proverbs 21:31). Listen to the books crying out for evangelical renewal and reformation in the life of the mind, the restoration of Truth in the place of technique, the recovery of church social compassion from government powerlessness, the taking of moral high ground in the environmental cause, and many other causes. Is there a sense in each of these that the root issues are so intractable to human suasion that the call for fasting and prayer would not only be fitting but desperately needed? I am commending such a call.
Read the whole thing.