Learning Fast - Day #1
I'm starting a fast today. I was supposed to start yesterday, but I forgot all about it until I was about half-way through a chick-fil-a biscuit. (Yum! Yum!)
It's a simple fast, for right now. Only fruit and veggies (no dairy, meat, wheat, sugar, legumes, potatoes, etc.) until dinner time. Then I will eat whatever my family is having.
The exception is (if you haven't guessed already): coffee and coffee condiments (cream, sweet'n'low, etc.). Because, c'mon ya'll, a girl's gotta function.
In the past, I have really tried to fast for a particular purpose. I usually start fasts with a "list" of things for which I am fasting.
But not this time.
I'm calling this a "learning" fast.
I want the Lord to teach me how to live a lifestyle of fasting.
Because, in the New Testament Church, fasting was a way of life. Like communion, prayer, scripture reading -- fasting was expected. It was the NORM for a Christian to fast at least one day a week.
That's four times a month.
I have fasted three times IN MY LIFE.
Recently, fasting has been on my heart. I really believe that it is a major missing component in my walk with the Lord. Scripture talks about the fact that there are some things that can only be released through fasting. There are demons that can only be cast out through fasting and blessing that can only be brought down from Heaven through fasting.
And I walk around, so defeated sometimes, missing the power that we are called to walk in as Spirit-filled Christians.
So, as I pray about this walk of defeats, the Lord is constantly impressing upon my heart the importance of fasting.
So that's what this fast is all about.
And I feel like it is a progressive fast.
I feel like I will start out with only fruits and veggies and coffee until dinner. Then I may move to only fruits and veggies and coffee all day. Then no coffee. Then only liquids. Then only water.
My goal is to have a 40-day liquid fast.
But it may take a while to get there.
I also have something that I need you girls to be praying about.
I feel like I am supposed to be walking this out in my public blog. I feel like the Lord is wanting to use this "learning fast" to minister to others about the Lord's gift of fasting.
But that seems really prideful to me. What about the whole "secret fasting" that scripture talks about?
Anyways, for now, I'm just going to walk it out here, in my private blog. I may eventually copy and post over there, but I really want some clear directions from the Lord before I do that.
In the meantime, please be praying that I receive the Lord's direction.
I am being so blessed right now by another woman's fasting journal. I'm reading "Confessions of a Fasting Housewife" by Catherine Brown. It is the journal that she wrote while on her first 40-day liquid fast.
It's such a powerful, honest book. And it's so encouraging to me! Because fasts have a lot of highs... but even more lows. It's not meant to be easy. It's denying the flesh. It's taking up a cross. Those aren't easy things to do.
The result of the fast is a blessing far beyond what we could imagine when we're going into the fast. But the process! The process is long and difficult.
Somehow, reading this book lets me know that it's okay for me to feel that way about fasting. It sucks... physically.
But I'm also a little excited about that part - the physical part. Because the more I pray about my weight, the more I am beginning to recognize that, while there probably are physical illnesses that have contributed to my size, there are also emotional and spiritual illnesses.
I am defeated by food, by my own appetite, and by my lack of self-control.
I REALLY feel very STRONGLY that this is one of the areas in which the Lord is calling me to walk in victory through this fast.
So, I suppose that's it for today. There are other things that the Lord has been showing me recently, but I think I'll probably post them on my public blog later today.
Okie Dokie.