2010 - The Year of a Fast
I am writing this without understanding anything about what I am about to say...it is all new for me.
I feel (with fear and trembling of failure) in my heart that God is calling me to a "Year of Fast" for 2010. Fasting is not something I have ever been good at....I always had good excuses: "well, I need to eat while I am on medication or I don't want to get sickly or weak while taking care of my children." God only knows all the excuses I can make up.
I am not big on new year's resolutions, either...so I am not going to call this one. I already don't feel good about keeping it, so I don't need to doom it with failure by calling it a 'new year's resolution for 2010'.
God prompted me with this idea...I know it didn't come from me, that is for sure. And that very day on the moody radio was a talk show about fasting...now is anyone saying, "God confirmation".
So I wrote down the author and name of the book and checked to see if I could get it at the Lifeway Christian bookstore near my home. (I know Amazon would have had it, but I am into supporting local businesses...this is another story all together!)
It is on order, or it may even be in...I need to go check. It is not like I don't have 20,000 other books to read and about a hundred making camp around my bed (on my side of course). Just yesterday my oldest told me, "Mom, you can learn too much...."
That happen after I was getting ready to watch a TV show with him and my eyes caught a book shelf I had not seen in a few months and I was totally enthralled with the "new" books in my house. "Oh, I didn't know we had this one. Hmm, this would be a good one. Have you read this?" You get the point. "Mom, come on you get so distracted..."
So back to fasting... I am serious about obeying God and He is trying to get my roaming attention. Maybe He figures a few stomach pains would slow me down to think more toward Him through the day. At least a friend told me that a day or so ago. She told me when she fast, and feels a pain of hunger, she talks with God knowing He went through much more pain for her.
Seriously, though, have you ever had a season of fasting with the Lord. Has He ever called you to a period of fasting? Can you share your experience and its effect?
And later on, I will let you know how it is going...
I feel (with fear and trembling of failure) in my heart that God is calling me to a "Year of Fast" for 2010. Fasting is not something I have ever been good at....I always had good excuses: "well, I need to eat while I am on medication or I don't want to get sickly or weak while taking care of my children." God only knows all the excuses I can make up.
I am not big on new year's resolutions, either...so I am not going to call this one. I already don't feel good about keeping it, so I don't need to doom it with failure by calling it a 'new year's resolution for 2010'.
God prompted me with this idea...I know it didn't come from me, that is for sure. And that very day on the moody radio was a talk show about fasting...now is anyone saying, "God confirmation".
So I wrote down the author and name of the book and checked to see if I could get it at the Lifeway Christian bookstore near my home. (I know Amazon would have had it, but I am into supporting local businesses...this is another story all together!)
It is on order, or it may even be in...I need to go check. It is not like I don't have 20,000 other books to read and about a hundred making camp around my bed (on my side of course). Just yesterday my oldest told me, "Mom, you can learn too much...."
That happen after I was getting ready to watch a TV show with him and my eyes caught a book shelf I had not seen in a few months and I was totally enthralled with the "new" books in my house. "Oh, I didn't know we had this one. Hmm, this would be a good one. Have you read this?" You get the point. "Mom, come on you get so distracted..."
So back to fasting... I am serious about obeying God and He is trying to get my roaming attention. Maybe He figures a few stomach pains would slow me down to think more toward Him through the day. At least a friend told me that a day or so ago. She told me when she fast, and feels a pain of hunger, she talks with God knowing He went through much more pain for her.
Seriously, though, have you ever had a season of fasting with the Lord. Has He ever called you to a period of fasting? Can you share your experience and its effect?
And later on, I will let you know how it is going...
In my third attempt to leave you a comment, I pray in the name of Jesus for it to work! LOL I was saying, in my life I may have fasted 2-3 times, usually at the suggestion of a pastor for a specific purpose. I know it is one of the main spiritual Christian discipline (John Piper, I believe wrote about), and is to be a very private discipline. I will pray for you as you seek the Lord's will and will likewise pray for Him to direct me into drawing me closer to Him. Love and hugs, Dawn
ReplyDelete"Mom, you can learn too much..."
ReplyDeleteHaha, Andrew!
Fasting is such an amazing thing - to think about JESUS and believers in the Bible gaining their sustenance entirely from the Spirit for 40 days blows my mind.
Daniel once fasted partly by not eating "any tasty food" (Daniel 10:3) for three weeks - evidently he ate enough to get by, but since he was mourning for his nation he did not want pleasurable distraction from his prayer time.
Mom was always pregnant or nursing, so she didn't do long full fasts - but I remember her fasting from a meal sometimes. My longest fast was that fateful Election Day...*sigh*.
~Amanda~