This past week my friend Vic decided she wanted to fast at some point and asked that I would join her. I'm gonna be honest and say I wasn't super excited about it. If you know me at all you know that I love to eat. But, I said "sure," figured it would be good for me and this past Sunday (aka yesterday) sucked it up and did it. Guess what? IT WAS FLIPPING AWESOME. Really, though.
Now, I've fasted before but never for the right reasons. I know that when you fast there should be a purpose to your fasting. There should be a desire to grow closer to or learn from God in some area. But, last time I fasted it was purely fasting for fasting's sake and it was terribly hard. As this Sunday came around I was getting a bit nervous wondering how I was gonna go an entire day without food, much less learn anything from it. (Did I mention that Sunday is the one day a week we get a free dinner? No? Yeah. No bueno. ) However, the night before I felt called to fast about discernment in my life and decided that's what I would do.
Ya'll I wish I could describe what an incredible experience it was. I woke up late (so that i'd have less time thinking about my hunger), went to church, came back and called mi madre while everyone else ate lunch, went to 2 meetings, had some intense Quiet time with God, went to dinner, and then just cleaned and really dove into the word with Vic. Here's the thing. When you're attempting NOT to focus on your hunger time with God gets a lot more serious. You learn that you have to depend on God to make it through the day because without him you'd absolutely give in. It's an awesome experience. Every time I got hungry i'd just start to talk to God about life and it would help SO much. But more importantly was how obvious God made it that He listens to us and cares about what we have to say.
The discernment I was fasting over was my desires versus God's desires. As in, I know what I want out of life, and they're not bad things, however I struggle to determine whether i'm trying to fit God's plan into my own, or fitting myself into God's plan. So the entire day that was my focus in prayer. I won't get into specifics about what I was praying for but there was one request I made at the beginning of the day about some things I needed to change in my life that I KNEW I couldn't (and still can't) do on my own and God immediately answered it. It's an ongoing struggle and throughout the day as I was put into situations where I had to deal with it I watched as God stepped in and helped me get through without losing my focus on Him. I wish I could fully explain how incredible it was. I could literally feel the transformation. It was so reassuring to realize that God DOES hear us and DOES respond when we call on him in faith.
Matthew 7:7
