Fasting: A Powerful Weapon In Your Spiritual Arsenal

I still remember the first time I fasted. For some reason I thought you didn’t get hungry when you fasted. I went 24 hours without food, and I was so excited I genuinely never felt hungry. I came to church and exclaimed to my new friends, “It worked! I never got hungry!” Puzzled at my declaration they made me aware that being hungry was part of fasting. I wish no one had ever told me this. I liked it better the old way. 

Each year Sarai and I set aside some time at the start of our year to really amp up our focus. This has become pretty common with believers and in churches all around who begin their year with 21 days of prayer and fasting. 21 Days is a way for us to believe for breakthroughs as we enter our year together. Our families, cities, our nation, and the world are all in need of a move of God in this hour. The Bible teaches us that if God's people who are called by his name will humble themselves and pray and seek his face and turn from their wicked ways, that God will hear from heaven, forgive our sins, and will heal our land. II Chronicles 7:14.

Patterned after the prophet Daniel's 21 days, believers around the world are joining together in this season of calling on God. Daniel said that he ate no "royal" or "choice" foods during this time. This would mean that he would have limited himself to vegetables, fruits, whole grains, etc. However, what you choose to fast is completely up to you. I’m often asked by people with certain dietary restrictions and needs what they should do. Reality is no matter what our eating habits are we all have foods that are “choice” foods for us we can avoid. In addition, what is a choice food for me may no be for you. Going 21 days without sweets is no chore for me. Salty foods and snacks are my weakness. If I said I’m denying myself cake for 21 Days it would make no sense. I probably would have never eaten it anyway. Whatever you are fasting should be an act of self denial. I’ve seen some so called fasting go on that wasn’t much more than selective gluttony. Overeating foods I don’t normally eat can hardly be considered fasting.

We just came out of a season where much of our days revolved around the foods of Christmas. Let this be a season where your focus is on spiritual food. Let your denial include blessing others. And let’s believe for breakthroughs in our lives as we enter 2018.

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.” Isaiah 58:6-9

Following the Son,

James A Williams

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where Is God When Evil Happens?

Image
Like most of you I am just hearing the details of the Florida school shooting that has left at least 17 dead. The evil involved in such an act is hard to comprehend. I wrote the following thoughts following the shooting in Las Vegas last year, but they are fitting today as well.  Whenever such evil occurs we often find ourselves asking, "God, where were you when this happened?" First off let me say there are no easy answers in times like this. Loss takes time to process, and tragedy caused by evil can be even harder to wrap our brains around. Human nature compels us to search for someone or something to blame. An all powerful, all loving God is an easy target. That said, allow me to offer a few thoughts. The Bible Never Promised Us An Easy Life " In this world you will have trouble." John 16:33 . These are the words of Jesus. Somehow over the years we've twisted a lot of the teachings of Scripture to form the fictional belief that if we follo...
Read more

What’s In Your Cart?

Image
On this day in 1939, Sylvan Goldman who owned the Humpty Dumpty supermarket chain got an idea. He was trying to think of a way for his customers to transport more groceries around his stores. He attached 4 wheels to the legs of a wooden folding chair, and then attached a basket to the seat. The shopping cart was born.  Before this shopping trips to the Humpty Dumpty or the Piggly Wiggly would be limited to what you could carry in your arms. I wonder if Sylvan’s original patent stated that one of the wheels was to either not spin or rapidly shake back and forth? It’s possible that this is some modern improvement on his original design. However it happened the carts keep getting bigger. When I bring my groceries to the check out counter I sometimes use the self check out. I don’t like the self checkout because the computer keeps telling me I put things in the bagging area when I didn’t. When I get a real person they will often ask this profound question. “Did you find ev...
Read more

Mercy

Image
We visited our nephew and his family last weekend. They have three boys, and witnessing their interactions brought back memories of both fun and difficult days of raising our boys. Sometimes when my boys were young I felt like all I did was discipline them. It seemed at times like we couldn't make it through a meal, homework, or even play time, without a fight breaking out, some inappropriate comment, backtalk, or a hundred other random things they could find to do to push their Mother and I over the line. I remember calmly saying things like, "I need for you to understand that I can feel anger welling up within me."  Sometimes this would result in corrected behavior, other times they would look at me as though I were speaking Chinese (I know this isn't actually a language, please don't write me a letter). I realize spanking children is controversial, so I tried not to spank my sons over 3 or 4 times a day (That's called hyperbole). On one occ...
Read more