Welcome to “30 Days of Praise!” Every once in a while I go into a month long journey of fasting, praying and praising. It helps me re-commit my life to Christ, keep my priorities in order, slow down from the craziness of everyday life and take time to really listen to what God wants to tell me. I am always amazed and excited where my journey takes me, and this time I will be journaling everyday and sharing my experiences with you.
Day 3 ~
I woke up this morning around 5am ready to start my day. I got up and began to pray. I usually wake up slowly, but this morning I seemed to have a lot of energy so I walked around the house lifting my hands and praising God. I write my blog posts in the mornings, so on Wednesday I wrote about what happened on Tuesday. It’s funny because I didn’t think I had anything to say, and when I sat down all this stuff came pouring out, and none of it was what I intended to say. I love it when God leads me like that. Anyway I was up, prayed and worshiped, wrote my blog post all before 7:30!
Out of habit I walked to the fridge to look for breakfast. I realized what I had done and reminded myself that I had committed to fast until noon every day. But once I had planted the seed of having breakfast in my mind I couldn’t shake it. It seemed like every 10 minutes I was looking at the clock waiting for noon to arrive. I tried to distract myself, pray more, even do chores, but nothing could keep me from longing for breakfast. As I kissed my husband goodbye in the morning I joked at him, “it’s not good to wake up at 5am when you are fasting until noon, it makes the day drag on” LOL I was trying to laugh at myself because really I was miserable.
The reason I fast is to put my flesh into subjection to God. Life is not all about getting what I want, but it’s about serving God and do what He would want me to do. My flesh was not happy with the idea because it had to suffer a little. My stomach was screaming “FEED ME!!!!” But my spirit was saying, “I will put my desires aside and listen to the voice God.”
I hooked my laptop to our surround sound and cranked “Days of Elijah” as loud as I could. Worshiping God is always a joy, and when you shout that song at the top of your lungs “There’s no God like Jehovah! There’s no God like Jehovah!” over and over you can’t help but be filled with joy. It’s exhilarating!
Finally the lunch hour came and I had the most wonderful grilled chicken Cesar wrap with fat free cottage cheese on the side. And less then 30 minutes later I had to go lay down for a nap. Now that my stomach was satisfied the early morning had caught up with me and I felt exhausted. But sleep did not instantly come, instead the Lord began to speak to my heart.
I thought of myself as a child when my mother would set guidelines for me. She told me not to ride my bike near the road because she didn’t want me to get hit by a car. She told me to put sunscreen on because I sunburn easily and she didn’t want me to suffer later. She told me I had to eat supper before my desert because she wanted me to eat healthy food that would help me grow. All the rules she had for me were to protect me and help me, although I couldn’t always see it. Jesus is the same. He has rules and guidelines for me because He loves me and wants to protect me. He wants me to prosper and be blessed. And just like my flesh was screaming this morning to have it’s own way in the flesh, we often are like that with God in the spiritual realm. He gives us guidelines, and instead of us embracing them and thanking him for for looking out for us, we throw our temper tantrum kicking and screaming the whole way. I don’t want to be like the spoiled child fighting back every time I don’t get my way with God, but rather I want to be open to his calling on my life. Even when I don’t always understand exactly why He wants me to do or not do something, I want want to be at that place where I trust Hm enough not to question him, but simply obey Him!
About Sarah @ Stand By Faith
