Fasting | Pt. 2

FASTING

There's not to much more I can actually say about fasting, within the context I will be experiencing it, than I wrote about yesterday. There are different kinds of fasts from food. There's a Daniel fast in which one only eats vegetables and water for a time. There's a lemon & honey fast in which the participate can boil water and make a lemon/honey tea to drink if energy is feeling low. These are both called "partial food fasts". A true fast which I wrote on earlier means to abstain from food for a certain period of time with the purpose of replacing that time with prayer. Today I will be replacing a different meal with a time of prayer.

THE EXPERIENCE

"So this is morning. It's when I spend the most time thinking about what I'm giving up."

- Jack's Mannequin

This morning I woke up about 6:45 to pray. I decided breakfast would be the meal for me to fast. I wanted to know what it felt like to start my day with a time of fasting. I'm again fasting and praying for our student ministries department and staff for wisdom and discernment into where God would have us move in the coming months to make what we do more effective for the Kingdom. I'm fasting for our students that those who don't know Jesus Christ as personal Savior would come to know him. I'm praying that our current students would invite their unsaved friends to church so they can have an opportunity for us to share Christ with them. I'm praying for my fellow pastors and staff: Tom, Jeremy, Aaron, Aaron, Jordan, Brian, Stephen, Jason, Tammy, Lynsey, and Caiti. I'm praying for protection for their integrity. I'm praying that God will keep them close to His heart. I'm pray that God will guide each one of them into a greater understanding of who He is in order than they can communicate that truth and live it out among their families and friends. I'm praying for them to have lasting relationships with the students in their focus groups. I'm praying for them to be surrounded with and feel the love of God on an entirely new level. We need clarity.

I will say that this morning is much harder than lunch yesterday to fast. I'm really tired. I keep getting distracted thinking about coffee and falling asleep. It's takes a much harder effort for me to wake up early and fast than it does for me later in the day. This is something to keep in mind for more lengthy fasts, it's good to know that mornings will be harder. They're also more beautiful. I've been watching the sun come higher and higher in the sky as I've been praying. I've watched it bring color and life to the creation below it. I pray that God will bring the same color and life to our student ministries department. I pray that He will give us a fresh wind and fire of His Holy Spirit and that we would move forward without inhibitions.

Blessings.