Spiritual Problems Require Spiritual Solutions

If you decide that you are going to tithe, I can almost guarantee that you suddenly will run into all kinds of opposition and "financial problems" calling for your money the following week. If you decide you are going to fast before the Lord, expect temptation. You can go to work six days a week for six months and never have anyone in the office or workplace offer you anything to eat. But if you tell your spouse tomorrow morning, "I'm not going to eat breakfast or lunch today, honey. I'm just going to fast," then 10 or 15 of your coworkers will get a "bright idea" that morning. That's the day that every one of them will bring freshly baked date-nut bread, banana bread, chocolate cookies, cake, homemade pie, and your favorite brand of ice cream to your desk!

"Don't you want some of these?" they will say.

Of course, you will try to be casual because you know from the Bible that you shouldn't broadcast the fact that you are fasting, so you say, "No, thank you."

They shake their heads in unbelief and say, "Oh come on, I've never brought you anything before."

When you say, "Well, okay" (secretly planning to take it home to eat later), your new found benefactorswill say, "Go ahead and taste it-it's the best thing I've ever made." (The unspoken threat is: "If you don't taste it, I'll be eternally offended, you ungrateful thing, you.")

Why did they have to bring all that great food on that day? Why didn't they bring it the day you missed breakfast and felt famished? That was the day they were eating Big Macs and hoagies and everything else, with grease dripping off the side of their mouths, but they never offered you anything. Fasting, just like tithing, is warfare.

We are dealing with spiritual problems in this life, and it's important for us to hear that. Spiritual problems require spiritual solutions. Let me say that again: Spiritual problems require spiritual solutions. Now that we have that fixed in our minds, I need to add: Spiritual problems and spiritual solutions don't always appear to be spiritual. In fact, they sometimes look or sound absolutely foolish (like not taking that huge cake slice while fasting!).

Excerpt from: Worship: The Pattern of Things in Heaven