My church is currently going through a 21 day fast to start off the year, so, since I am all holy and stuff, I figured I should take part :P (just kidding about the holy part!) We are doing the 'Daniel Fast' which just means that I can't eat anything that comes from animals. As some people have put it, I'm gonna be a Vegan for a while! haha I also need to stay clear of sugar, caffeine and foods with any additives.
The Daniel fast comes from The book of Daniel, when he refused to eat anything from the Kings table and insisted that he and his friends could stick to their own diet! In the end it turned out that Daniel and his friends were a lot healthier and better nourished than the other young men who ate the Kings food. To understand why we use this as a fast I would suggest you read Daniel chapter 10. Thats just my brief explanation on my understanding if the Daniel fast :)
Now fasting in general is a pretty tough subject. I find it can be very hard to understand and even I don't fully understand it! But I as I understand, the point of fasting is to weaken your flesh so that your spirit can be strong!
I had a little conversation with my mom about this as I never really understood completely. She said something very interesting that helped a lot; your flesh and your spirit are always fighting each other. Your selfish thoughts and desires are always going to be up against the part of you that wants to be pure and righteous. So if these parts of you are in constant battle, then one of them has to be winning right? So, by my understanding, if we are making our flesh weak then our spirit must be just a bit stronger!
Now here is the realy important part. While our flesh is weak, we need to be making our spirit even stronger. This is why you need to be praying and reading your bible and spending time with God. It is a lot easier to get closer to god when you are focusing on Him and not on our fleshy desires! ( the word flesh is starting to sound really strange...) So those are my thoughts on fasting.. they are only my opinions and might not be totally correct or I might of missed something, so if you have any thoughts, please do post a comment!
Another great advantage of doing this fast is the health benefits. What a great way to recover from all the junk we've been eating over Christmas! I am so excited just to get eating healthier again and giving my poor body a break!
So I will be leaving little updates every now and then to let you know how its going.. also if you are doing the fast ( you are all welcome to!) I would love it if you could also post updates or comments after each post so its not just me rambling away :)
Fantastic understanding of fasting, great job Lorah. I think the key thing in a fast is to get closer to God. So if you are fasting but spend all your time watching rubbish on TV or playing computer games, etc then the fast is a bit pointless. We need to use these 21 days to get closer to God while our flesh is weak.
ReplyDeleteIt is going to be incredible to see what God will do, when we humble ourselves and seek His face.
Keep writing your thoughts Lorah, you are doing a great job.
Lots of Luvies
xxxx
Great thoughts. I agree completely. It is great when we fast, seems we are so more sensitive to God's voice and even nicer to people, as God's presence and word is more often, as we are supposed to pray and spend more time with him.
ReplyDeleteBut fast is hard indeed, is a big fight with the flesh. And so many invitation for eating comes and so many temptation to try to make us fall and break the fast. We all need to be strong and to be praying for each other taking part in the fast, so Gdo can strenght each one and give wisdom and strenght.
Great post Lorah! Nice and simple, I couldn't put it better myself. Well done!
ReplyDelete