“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” – Isaiah 58:6
So I don’t know about you guys, but for me, when I hear the term “fasting” it does not sound very fun or attractive to me because if i’m honest, selfishly, I want my food and can just spend time with God eating my food, which then usually doesn’t happen then either. It was such irrelevant part of my life that I probably have only ever truly spent time fasting in prayer no more than 3 times in my entire life. However, thankfully I think the irrelevancy of fasting in my life is about to change. About a week and a half ago my squadmates and I were talking and sharing prayer request, as we all have our first financial deadline due in July and also about how it seems like the devil is doing anything he can to work his way into a lot of our lives causing hurt and doubt and so we decided that together, we would fast in prayer through breakfast and lunch along with asking some of our family friends to join with us. I of course thought this was a great idea as I believe prayer to be very powerful, especially in number, but the idea of fasting two meals didn’t really sound the most appealing. And so the next morning we started our fast and I woke up thinking, “crap, I can’t eat till 5pm!” It was at the moment I knew my mindset needed to change and so I asked God to let my heart and mind be fully present in this time with Him and my team. That was the best prayer I prayed that day as my mindset and spirit changed dramatically. Thankfully, I didn’t have to work that day and so that gave me the opportunity to blast some worship music throughout the house the entire day while spending a lot of time in His word, talking to Him constantly and reading other books to help prepare my heart and mind for this journey that I am on. Throughout that day I got to hear some amazing stories from some of my squadmates of how they saw God that day. And for me, I don’t remember the last time I was filled with so much joy and so high on the Spirit as I was that day. God created in me a new appreciation of Him that day and that I need to make fasting in prayer with Him more of a priority in my life. And also, together as a squad, we have decided to make fasting together as a team every month for this next year.
“After Jesus’ fast, He began healing, rescuing, redeeming. The spirit filled up the emptiness Jesus created, launching Him into ministry.” – Jen Hatmaker, 7
The Bearded Challenge:
As most of you probably saw on social media, last week I posted a fundraising challenge on Friday morning, that if I could get 20 boxes adopted on my adopt-a-box fundraiser by Sunday night at midnight, I would clean shave my beard. And for those of you that know me, that is serious business as I take pride in my beard and have not clean shaved it in I don’t know how many years. So going into the challenge I really thought it would happen easily as there are a lot of people who would get a laugh out of my clean shaved baby face, but come Sunday afternoon I was getting really discouraged as I only had like 2 boxes adopted and I started letting Satan creep a lot of doubt in me about my fundraising. I did a lot of praying. I was even kind of lessening the challenge to God asking if I can just 10 boxes if 20 is not going to happen. Well thankfully God kind of let that prayer skip on by because with a couple hours to spare and a couple generous families, the 20 box challenge was met. I may have got a little emotional that night for a couple reasons. One, at how big God is and how He always comes through, but it’s in His timing and not ours which is the best timing and my faith a little bit stronger that night. I also got a little emotional because I knew I would have to say goodbye to my beard the next day haha.
So needless to say, these last couple weeks have brought lots of emotion and strength in my faith. And I would just like to encourage any of you who may be reading this that has always approached fasting like I used to, to stop and throw those preconceived notions and give it a shot again. Except this time, before you even start, let the words coming out of you mouth be to God asking Him to change your heart and mind in this time, that you would be able to be fully present and see how God will work in and through that.
Prayer Requests:
-
That the Lord will provide for me to meet my first financial deadline of $5,000 that is due in July. I’m only $450 away!
-
That the Lord will provide for my sqaudmates as well to meet the same deadline. That for all of us, our faith would not grow weary during this time.
- For the preparation of my heart for this season that I am in and about to embark on. That my heart will be open to and accept what God is going to teach me this next year.
