A Fast Prayer

Hum how to explain these past few days???Well I have some things on my heart so I sought the council of my wonderful preacher’s wife Crystal… you know the one who introduced me to the term Godly Sandpaper-Person. I talked to her about many things on my heart and how to muddle through them. She encouraged me to fast and pray. OK NBD right? I mean, the pray part thing I can handle, been doing that since I could talk. As for the fasting… well now that is a scary word. I was brought up in a very conservative church and anything beyond reading your bible and praying was considered “charismatic.” Because of this my views on matters of the spirit and hearing from the Lord have been very skewed to say the least.

In college I was introduced to the idea of fasting while I was on a leadership committee for a Christian organization. I did it at the strong urging of my fellow committee members, and not because I had heard from the Lord. So it was what I want to call baby fasting; I fasted from things like coke, sweets, TV, and my beloved car radio. Don’t get me wrong fasting from these things can be very important if God lays in on your heart my baby fasting was more referring to my attitude. I saw it as just a test of my will-power rather than a time to better encounter God and intercede for things in prayer.

This time however as soon as Crystal suggested to fast I felt a strong desire from the Lord to fast from food for two weeks. Whoa whoa whoa cool your jets don’t freak out let me explain. I didn’t feel the need to restrain from all food for all two weeks but for some reason two weeks and food were things on my heart. I went home and prayed and really felt that God wanted me to completely fast from food every other day during this time. As a teenager I had an attempt at the very unhealthy eating disorder, anorexia, which lasted all of 6hours. And that, my friends, is probably the longest I have gone in my waking life without a full meal. So these two weeks were and are going to be very trying for me.

I am now on my fifth day of the 14 day fast and day three of the food free days. Day one wasn’t so hard and I spent a lot of it reverently in prayer, every time my tummy growled I would pause and pray and then the time I would have normally spent preparing and eating my meals I spent in the word or again praying. Well on this day I also discovered that a nice big glass of chocolate milk could fill my tummy and proved an adequate amount of nutrition for the day. Thanks God, I love chocolate milk!!!! (for reals no sarcasm there I do really love it)

I found that my second of the food free days was the exact opposite of the first day. I spent it whining and complaining that I was hungry and begging God to fill my tummy rather than praying for the things on my heart. I also slept horribly that night and was grumpy the next morning because I had a crick in my neck and to top it off I over slept which meant I didn’t get to eat breakfast before I needed to be at church. The rest of Sunday was full of wonderful food and fellowship. God even blessed me by having a sweet soul pay for my lunch, they didn’t even know about the fast and what a simple but AWESOME blessing this was in my life.

Well to make a long story that is getting longer somewhat short... Despite another awful night of sleep and a horrible pain in my neck today’s fast has been much much better. I think I am finally learning how to have a good balance of prayer for God to sustain my hunger and the things on my heart. He even reveled to me a book in the bible to read. It is obvious he wants me to gain wisdom from this book because it specifically addresses, almost verbatim, things I have been praying for.

Now all I need is discernment to understand what it is he is trying to tell me through the passages. So if you have the time lift up a "fast prayer" (hehe I am so funny) about my fast and specifically pray for discernment. I need it now more than ever, or well maybe I needed it on Sunday before laughing out loud in church when no one else did and the whole congregation turned and looked at me, but nonetheless I need it now too!