Fasting and Prayer Day # 10
We are just about half way through!
Ruth commented earlier about something of great importance. Water.
Drink water people! Drink it when you get up. Drink it throughout the day. Drink it before you go to sleep. Yes, even if you have to get up in the middle of the night for a bathroom visit, you’re still flushing out the bad, irrigating the good, and lubricating your whole system.
Water. There! That’s our practical reminder for today!
As I finished this post, my stomach growled loudly. Hahaha. Don’t have time to feed the flesh today, I’m empowering my spirit.
Even though I am only on a partial fast do to a very physically challenging race coming up. I thought giving up sweets, caffeine and alcohol would be good sacrifice. Thinking how it would not be so tough. Well I do find myself many times saying oh no will know if I have a couple M&M’s or a cup of coffee or glass of wine in the eveining. Its very tough when you have a business meeting at Starbucks and I am drinking water and evertone says oh Ill buy you a cup a coffee and I have to say no not today. When I am by my self know one will know. However God will know. It is at those times I find myself opening my bible on my phone reading the verses I have sent to me from various places to help me overcome my urges. I also read my favorite verse Phillipians 4:6. Be anxious for nothing is the first part. It also helps to have my girlfriend Jennifer fasting as well. I think we keep each other in check during tough times. It also reminds me that she too was brought to my God. What a blessing. I just want to say thank you Jesus for keeping me strong. It is only from keeping my focus on him that I really see blessings start to overflow and recognize the blessings he has already sent me.
I agree I was going to write on this post and saw Gary’s comment. I polute my body with soda and coffee and am now drinking water and more water. I do drink de-caf drinks though. I was thinking this morning that I need to do more so I am going to add sweets in like Gary for the last part of the fast, so these last 11 days I will not have sweets. I didn’t think I ate many sweets but then started realizing the little tastes I do with hard candy or whatever it may be.
Speaking of M & Ms Gary, I too gave up sweets and today I was standing in the hallway of my office and I felt someone place something in my hand. I looked down and it was a bag of M & Ms. Go figure! LOL Anyway I said thank you and walked over to my desk and placed them in a drawer out of sight. It’s amazing how many temptations Satin will try and use to guide us away from our Lord, but we are stronger and we are persevering.
When I was a teenager we used to sneak onto this golf course and go ‘ice sliding’. Seems this particular golf course had this lovely steep hill that was perfect. Ice sliding, for those who’ve never had that opportunity, is to sit on a block of ice at the top of a hill and ride the ice all the way down, of course avoiding any brush and people that were walking up the hill with their block of ice in tow.
The ice was heavy and the hill was very steep. It was quite an effort to get to the top of the hill, but the reward was like being at an amusement park. The ride down was such fun that you forgot the difficulty of the climb back up the hill for another ride. Ah, to be at the top of the hill, the half-way point.
That’s one view I take on my fast. Today is the mid-point of our fast, we have complete 10.5 days; we stand at the top of the hill. Ahhhh, but there is a difference, we are looking at the hill from a much different perspective, everything is down down-hill. We have spent the first half of the fast with our bodies yelling at us, as we proceed down the 2nd half of the fast our bodies are going to start praising God as we see ourselves accomplishing the ‘impossible’.
I know at the ½ way point, I can’t lose. I have already succeeded in doing ½ the fast, I’m standing at the top of the hill, and I found that I can do ½ a fast. I also know that I could do ½ a fast again, since I just did one. So I stand at the top of the hill so confident in Christ and I enjoy the slide down.
I like the stories and the bonding that is going on as we post our precious thoughts here.
Steve thank you for sharing that story. I really enjoyed it and it gave me a new perspective.
Thank you,
Jennifer
I was having a rough day today. I felt attacked by the devil and I felt overwhelmed. However, I did not crave the food I am fasting which is a good thing. I am learning to give it to God. Now if I can just learn to give it to Him to begin with instead of waiting until I’m completely overwhelmed and can’t handle it on my own. I read in the Fasting book today of how people can be used as blessings of God or tools of the enemy. “Flesh people tear you down and Faith people build you up. I’ve been around Flesh people too much and now I need to not allow them to have a voice in my life and turn to my Faith people who will build me up. I have made a conscious choice after today to no longer allow Flesh people to have a voice in my life. Food for thought?
The middle weekend. It’s like a runner as he rounds the final curve of he lap on the track, he can start to visibly see the finish line. He can see and hear the crowd and they begin to stand and bunch in at the finish line. His body is pumping adrenalin as that is all he has left. However, that is all he needs at this point, his body spent, but for a chemical a little organ secretes in times like this.
That’s how I feel about this weekend of our fast. I can feel myself rounding that last curve (this weekend) and I know that it’s a straight line to the finish line. In this endeavor, Christ is my adrenalin, He is running beside me urging me on, telling me that I can do it. I can see Him next to me, I can see Him a little further down the track encouraging me and I can see Him at the finish line celebrating with me.
This is the week that I start proclaiming victory because I know I’m in Christ and He in me. How do I know it? Well I don’t go this many days without eating ‘normally’ by myself, there is only one thing keeping me going at this point, my ‘spiritual adrenalin’, Jesus Christ, as I honor Him with my prayers and my fasting.
I hope everyone is doing well with their own fast. See you all this Sunday!