Here’s another story from another dear friend. In case you’re saying, “I’d never do that…” she said that too. 😉
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This has been such an interesting journey for me. I have never fasted in any shape or form before. Growing up super legalistic I have spent a lot of my adult life relying on myself and thinking of God as someone far away that is always ready to condemn you.
Over the last year God has been slowly and painfully tearing down the walls around my heart and I am so thankful to no longer be guarded against Him and fellow Christians. It has been amazing to be able to say I “heard” from God and realizing that He speaks to us through so many ways, especially His scriptures.
I definitely hadn’t planned on fasting and it was one of those things I was “never” going to do (kind of like speaking or praying in front of the church). Obviously God had other plans. Our family has a lot of big changes coming in the next year and I felt God asking me to prepare myself because it was going to be a rocky season. Every time I would ask God how He wanted me to prepare someone would talk about fasting or I would read about fasting in my Bible reading that day. Hmm, strange I thought.
Fast forward to a couple of months later and we were at the Women’s Getaway. I went into the weekend feeling ready to receive what God had planned for me and through prayer and conversation, felt really convicted that fasting was how He wanted to prepare me. If you know me you know I am not a halfway kind of gal, so I decided to go for it and started the day after we got back.
I love the fact that I came back and told [my husband] that I was going to fast for 40 days and instead of questioning me at all, he just says, “Okay, let me know how I can encourage you.” It is such a blessing to be married to someone who can say that, especially with how our marriage started out.
Fasting is such an eye opening experience. You realize that it’s okay to be hungry. You realize that God really can be what you desire. You also realize how broken the world is. I thought this time of fasting was going to be about our lives. It is in some ways but for me it has really been about interceding in prayer for our broken world. I used to be so accepting of sickness, divorce, etc. as just a part of life. These past three weeks God has told me no! You need to fight! You need to get on you knees and intercede for the world you live in. It is easy to see the brokenness in world. It is in your face every day. Now I feel like I am seeing it through God’s eyes and I am so excited to be able to enter into this battle with prayer and fasting.
My faith has increased more in this short amount of time than ever before. It may surprise you but I can get really focused on getting things done and being motivated. Being hungry has definitely slowed me down and made me more focused on what God has for me in the moment. It has also been a great way to share with people what God is doing in my life, instead of letting that mom’s night out be really awkward. I was reading 1 Corinthians this morning and this just resonated with me:
“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:31
That is what I want. I want people to know and see that anything that happens in my life is not my own doing but God’s.
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I love this: “You need to fight! You need to get on your knees and intercede for the world.” Amen, sister. Well said. Thanks for reading.}