The Lord placed it in my heart to participate in a spiritual fast at the start of this new year. As my first fast is coming to an end today, I wanted to share the details of what I’ve experienced in these last few weeks.
The fast that God directed me towards was the 21-day Wonderfast with Worship With Wonders Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Yes, we live in Texas.. but we livestream Worship With Wonders as often as we can!!
During this fast, I wasn’t allowed to eat for 7 hours from the moment I woke up each day. And as a part of this fast, Worship With Wonders provided a daily devotional and bible verse for each day.
On one of my first days of the fast, I went to the gym in the morning before work and did my cardio per usual. Normally I would eat within an hour after my workouts, but since I was fasting (which liquids are usually okay) I decided to drink a protein shake and stayed on my plan of EATING my first meal later when my daily fast was over. As the hours passed that morning, I felt guiltier and guiltier about the fact that I had provided nutrients to my body BEFORE my fasting time was up. I felt like I had cheated God, and immediately felt convicted that I had broken my fast. I prayed and asked God for forgiveness of breaking the fast, I cut the shakes out, and I strictly stuck with coffee, tea, and water after that.
As I got deeper into my fast, it didn’t get any easier. There would be mornings that I would feel lightheaded after my workouts, but in those moments I would just pray for God to give me strength to get through the morning and for Him to keep my mindset and attitude positive so that I could conquer any enemy attacks while I was “hangry”.
And on my days off of work, fasting was even more difficult. I would sleep in until 7am, sometimes even as late as 9am. Which meant my fast would last anywhere from 2 to 4pm before I could have my first meal. This was definitely the most difficult thing for me, and there were a handful of times I had moments of weakness and thought about giving in. BUT I prayed to God in those times, I opened up my Bible and/or my devotional, and studied His word.
Flashback to last weekend for my birthday weekend… Chad planned a romantic night at a hotel for us and wanted to take me to brunch at an amazing spot the next day.. BUT with both of us fasting, brunch was difficult to plan. So we chose to make a sacrifice and we woke up at 4:30am and devoted our time to read our bible studies, so that we COULD make it to brunch in the time that we wanted.
What I learned from this fast is when you give something up that ends up depriving you of things that you love or are “addicted” to (food for me) it puts you in a pretty desperate place. But in these desperate moments is when you have an opportunity to get closest to God. You think about the greatest sacrifice that Jesus made for us and our salvation, and it puts things into a very different perspective — If Jesus can sacrifice His LIFE for us… why can’t we sacrifice eating, set aside some time in our days to read God’s word, devote our time to deep prayer, and even push our bodies towards a little bit of suffering?
Sure, there were moments when I was consumed by hunger. I was light-headed. My stomach was audibly growling. I felt weak. My mouth would water if I caught a whiff of someone else’s food before it was my time to eat. There were times where I wanted to throw in the towel and inhale all the foods. But I didn’t. Every time I felt any of these weaknesses, I rebuked the enemy’s attempt to break me and I prayed to God. I prayed often, and I prayed hard. And the Lord came through every time, and provided the strength I needed to overcome the weaknesses of my flesh and feelings.
This experience of fasting brought me closer to God. It brought me towards deeper levels of prayer. It gave me confidence to pray for people out loud. It grew my relationship with God, and allowed Him to flow more directly within me. My heart became even more open to His word and His instructions for my purpose here on Earth, and He was able to easily flow through me to pour out onto others. It granted me time of solitude to really embrace all that He has done in my life, and to thank Him in every moment possible.
I am no where near perfect, and my relationship with God will always need more “work” for the rest of my life. But I really learned a lot through this fast, and I am even more thankful for experiencing God’s love, His mercy, and His strength through it all. There will be many times throughout the rest of my life where I will be in a desperate position, but it is so comforting to know that our sovereign God can provide so much comfort and guidance during those times. And that He will never leave us. ❤️
“But as for me, how good it is to be near God! I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do.” — Psalm 73:28
Noah’s Ray of Sunshine 
❤❤❤
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