Day Five: Daniel Fast

I want to get something out of the way right now before I start this blog. I have had several people as me, concerning fasting, if it is appropriate to tell others you are on a fast. While I do not believe the reason we fast is for the approval of others, or to seem "over-saved", but it is deeply personal and between us and the Lord. That being said, I am writing this blog for those fasting with me, to encourage, edify, and strengthen them in their practice. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that fasting should be a secret, only that recognition is not the reason we fast.

Today is the fifth day of the Daniel fast and I cannot begin to express how incredible the past five days have been. I have started several Daniel fasts in the past with wrong motives I hate to admit. Either I was doing it because friends were doing it, or (once again, I hate to admit) I have even attempted to do the fast as a diet. Every time I attempted to fast for selfish reasons, I failed. Most of these attempts ended before the 24 hour mark hit. 

That's the thing about the flesh....
                 It is very impatient.... 

Something most know about me who have sat under my teaching for any period of time know of my tortured past with eating disorders. It took me years to even admit I had a problem, and much longer to ever speak out on this subject, but because I believe God's calling in my life is largely contingent on how He brought me through this time, I feel the liberty to speak about a very personal, very dark time in my life. I look at the decade (yes, a full 10 years) that I had a destructive relationship with food as the flesh taking up residence in my body. The majority of this time, I was living a Christian life, for several years I was serving in ministry, but the thing that woke me up in the morning, and I thought about going to sleep at night...was the flesh.

That is a story for another blog, but I use it to highlight something very important about fasting...it is all about denying the flesh. Our culture feeds our flesh more food than we can process, and our Spirit takes a back burner to Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. There is always something begging our flesh to act in a certain way. When we fast, we give our Spirit the chance to be the guiding voice of our day. We allow the voice of the Lord to be greater than the voice of the world, and get really intentional with our pursuit of God.

If your fast doesn't mean anything to you...It won't mean anything to God. Fasting without prayer, fasting without the Word is little more than a diet...and trust me, you won't last.

Although I have been free from the chains of an eating disorder for six years now, I am still very conscious of my physical appearance and weight. I hate to admit this, but I cannot go a day without my trip to the bathroom scale being my first order of business. It is not something I am proud of, but it is the flesh holding onto my life in that way. I often live in bondage to the number I see, and my attitude for the day can be greatly affected by what it tells me. I could probably count on both hands the number of times I have not weighed myself first thing in the morning in the past 10 years (that I was home of course), and most of those were days where I had binged the night before and physically hid my scale because I didn't want to see the damage.

That being said...

Something remarkable happened to me yesterday. I had been on the fast for three days and many people were telling me they had already lost weight. (In all honesty I think I might GAIN weight from the diet because of how wonderful the food that I am eating is) Although I am doing this fast 100% for the Lord, I couldn't help but think in the back of my mind, how wonderful a "bonus" weight loss would be. But around 3 pm yesterday, I realized something incredible...I didn't weigh myself this morning. Not only did I not weigh myself, I didn't realize it until 3 pm.

I decided to try and make the commitment during this fast to wake up early...which trust me, is a sacrifice within itself for this lady...and spend time with the Lord before going to work. Yesterday, the desire to spend those precious moments with the Savior completely silenced a voice of the flesh that had been ruling my mornings for the past 15 years! And it is only day 5!

I realize this may not sound like a big deal to some, but anyone that has ever battled a serious eating disorder can relate to the breakthrough this was. In a small way, God was showing me that the flesh doesn't have to have power over my life and my disposition. Now, for you it is probably something completely different: a bad habit, watching too much TV, gossip, hate, lust, etc. But what the Lord is showing me through this fast is...the flesh has no claim over the word of God.

Whatever it is that you are wanting to see God do and perform in your life, HE CAN.
Whatever the chain that binds you is, HE CAN LOOSE.

I didn't even get to start on what I was going to write about tonight! But hopefully someone needed to hear that! I will write again tomorrow on something incredible God has shown me in the Word about fasting.

In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying the food on this diet as much as I am. I know that I might be "weird" but I'm actually loving the vegan choices! I have spent a lot of time in the kitchen, but experimenting with cooking and baking is one of my hobbies :) Now, let's be clear, I am not becoming vegan after this fast and I will NEVER give up my cupcakes...but let's make the best out of the things we CAN eat! Let me know if any of you want recipes!

Cauliflower Curry
Brown Rice with Scallions, Pine Nuts, and Tomatoes
Date, Walnut, and Coconut energy bites

And Lots and Lots of Smoothies!!!!