For the last 7 days I have been doing the Daniel Fast. The Daniel Fast when you eat only fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts/legumes, and whole grains. You are not allowed to have anything that has additives or preservatives and you can drink only water. Romania has been the prefect country for this. Lipovia is a town full of fresh local produce.
Fasting is a discipline that I have been wanting to grow in. So far on the Race The Lord has presented me with several opportunities to fast. Each time I have fasted The Lord has done some incredible things within me, my team, and my squad. I have seen him bring healing, freedom, revelation, and provide thousands of dollars in support money. I believe powerful things happen when we fast and pray. This time was no different. The Lord spoke, healed, brought revelation, truth, and freedom and I am reminded of three very important truths.
1. The Lord cares about my body.
It has been no secret that the World Race has been hard on my body. My skin is breaking out, my stomach aches most days, constipation or diarrhea are my new normal (sorry if that was too much information) and I feel bloated and not myself most of the time. You can imagine my joy when The Lord told me it was time to fast. Not only fast but Daniel fast. Due to lack of whole grains available to me in Lipova I have been living on fresh produce and nuts for the last 7 days. It has been incredible. I have felt my body come back to life. My skin has been clearing up some, my stomach no longer aches, I’m regular, and I’m not longer bloated.
I am reminded during this fast that The Lord cares about the things I care about. I feel incredibly loved by Him when He provides me with the things that my body needs in order feel good and that He knows my physical limitations better than I do and will provide what I need when I need it. I am also reminded of two scriptures that have been huge for me in how I come to learn to better care for my body.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)
Do you no know that you body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, who you have received from God? You are not your own; you have been brought with a price. There for honor God with you body.
Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
Therefore, I urge you, brother, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—This is your spiritual act of worship.
I love that the Father, my Father, loves me so well. I love how He cares for me and how He is consistently faithful to provide for all my needs.
2. The Lord cares about my heart.
This month has definitely presented it’s challenges. My heart has been challenged to press in and to remain unoffendable, unentitled. I been challenge to really live a life of grace. To extend the same grace that Christ extends to me to myself, my teammates, and my contact. Multiple times a day I would have to check my heart. I could feel pieces of my flesh falling off each day, sometimes each minute, and pieces of my heart not only being put back together but being healed. It was hard. It was messy. It was painful. It definitely was not fun, but It was good. With each challenge came victory. With each hurt came healing. As I became less He became great.I have felt parts of my heart come alive again. I have found a deeper and more sustaining joy. I have been able to catch glimpses of the Father’s heart and hear Him more clearly.
I reminded that growth and healing are sometimes painful. I am reminded that this pain is well worth it. I am reminded that with growth and healing come freedom in Christ and intimacy with the Father. I reminded that He hold my heart in His hands and that His hands are more than capable of caring for my heart. I am reminded that more room I give God to do what He what only He can do the more I am free to be. I am reminded to be free because my freedom was bought with a high and heavy price.
3. It is not about me.
Sometimes, selfishly, I don’t want to go through painful, hard, or challenging things because well it isn’t really fun, it hurts and frankly a lot of the time it really sucks. However I am reminded that is not about me. While my healing, my freedom, and my intimacy with the Father greatly benefit me it is not for me. It is all to bring glory to God. My story, my healing, my pain, my high, my lows, my challenges, my victories, my failures, my short comings, all the wrong that has been done to me pails in comparison to all the wrong that was done to Jesus, the perfect one, on the cross. All this the things in this life that happen to me, good or bad, are not for me nor about me. It is all for His glory and the advancement of His kingdom. Wallowing in my mess, failing to live in the freedom He has graciously given me, not sharing my story rob Him of His glory. Think about that…how convicting is that? I know.
It is not about me. It is about Him.
Ephesians 2:4-7,3:12,4:23-24,5:1-2
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. To be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. In him through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.Be imitators of God therefor, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
It is not because of me or for me that I have 24/7 access to the Father. It is because of Jesus. It is not because of anything I could ever do that I get to experience the freedom, mercy, love and grace of the Father. It is because of Jesus. I can’t not continue this journey. I can’t not share my story. I can’t not be free because it is not about me. It is about him.
