Playoff Push

I’ve been going through Seth Barnes’ The Art of Listening Prayer, and it has helped usher me into a daily prayer discipline that has opened up my conversations with God in just the ways I had been longing for.  Just as that was getting comfortable, the prearranged date for my squad and I to do a 3-day food fast approached.  Fasting is a discipline I’m not used to.  Growing up I didn’t even fast during Lent because I really failed to understand the purpose, and I like to do things for the right reasons.  The entire G-Squad, however, committed to fasting together Sept. 16-18.  I talked with my brother briefly and with my teammates about how to approach the experience and they offered some good insight. 

As I got ready to go without food for three days, I was filled with an apprehension that told me this would be a great time to seek God’s voice in new ways.  I started my fast yesterday afternoon so I could eat with my brother and his wife on Thursday as we had previously planned (the rest of the squad started the fast today).  Last night I closed at work.  Going through the first half day of a food fast while working at Domino’s was pretty torturous.  When I got home I spent some time in prayer before I went to sleep. As I began my prayer I told God I wouldn’t go to sleep until he took away my hunger, filling it with him.  I had been struggling with intercession in prayer. I knew I wanted God to be stretching me into new ways of being close with him during these three days, so I started praying for a young man I met this last week, pressing in to intercession.  Before I knew it prayers were just flowing.  I prayed for just about everyone who has been around me in my life lately, and the words just came.  Hunger left my mind and I know God gave me those prayers.  I felt as though I had truly interceded for those people in a powerful way.

My teammates who have fasted before told me that the 24-hour mark is probably the time when the fast is the “toughest”.  I ate my last meal around 1:00 yesterday.  Today at about 2:00 food was on my mind.  I thought of a few things to do that could take my mind off of it, but none of them seemed to satisfy until I went to my room and started to pray again.  I asked God for some scripture to read and I ended up reading the first several chapters of John.  I got some great timely words on prayer, fasting, and a fresh and reassuring reading of John 3:16.

I thought today about how great it has been to spend time with God every day and how much I have been running to prayer and the Word to sustain me lately.  It even now seems hard to imagine that I’ve spent the last few years going at least a week at a time between instances where I would seek His presence.  Every time I step into something new, God surrounds me and makes it feel right.

Last night at work I was explaining to a coworker of mine that I was fasting (he was wondering why I hadn’t munched on anything all night like I normally would), and he said, “That’s called starving yourself! I don’t think God told you to starve yourself.”  I told him that there are Biblical accounts of fasting.  He said, “Yeah, during holy times.  Is it a holy time?”  I replied, “For me it’s a holy time.”

I spoke those words first without really thinking about them.  Once they came out, I realized how true they are.  As I prepare for the Race God is working in my life like never before…seriously like NEVER before.  I’m experiencing Him in new and powerful ways.  As I do I’m expecting him to continue that work, and more powerfully as well.  My faith is growing and I’m asking for more daily.