Nothing. Part 1

The thought of fasting always brings me back to a few years ago during the Lenten season. I was in a long period of fasting, one day per week and drinking only water on that day. A friend and I had decided to fast for a specific cause that was particularly emotional, painful, and draining, to instead focus our hearts on God rather than the situation that haunted us daily. After fasting for months, I began to contemplate wether I should break the fast. With the approach of Lent, there was increased hubbub of what people were going to "give up" for Lent. I had always avoided Lent because I didn't understand it and though it was a Catholic thing. But this year was different, it had spread to my non-denominational church. So, people were running around saying what they were going to give up for Lent declaring "soft drinks," "TV," or "Video Games," all stuff like that. I would brashly ask "what is Lent anyway" and either I would get a reply like "its when you're supposed to give up something for Jesu," or "I don't know." I wasn't satisfied with either of those answers. The un-satisfaction heightened my awareness of not understanding. So, I began to ask more and looked deeper, and I really learned what Lent was about.

So, on Ash Wednesday, the day of the week that I would normally fast, I gave up fasting for Lent... 

Permanently. 

Why? Because things given up for Lent were never meant to be a temporary abstinence of a certain thing. And I was honestly sick and tired of multitudes of people participating in a religious festival that they did not understand. Granted it is not any fault of the people. Rather, its the church who failed to teach and make it known clearly what it was all about.

Each consecutive year I would give up another thing for Lent that I felt the Lord leading me to give up. Specifically things hindering me from Him. I gave up religious semantics one year, which helped me to see how "churchy" my vocabulary was. 

Recently, I had been feeling a call to fast. Ever since I gave up fasting I have sought earnestly after God to show me what true fasting is. Even more recently my church leaders had asked the congregation to consider fasting in this season for specific reasons and things for our church. I began to ask God wether I needed to fast or not and I felt He answered "yes," but what to fast from was the real question. It was not going to be a fast from food. 

In Old Testament times, fasts were meant for consecration, to separate, or take something apart from another, to make unique, to make holy, to change the actions and outcome of the everyday grind, not going about doing exactly what you were doing yesterday onto doing the same tomorrow. Fasting is meant to signify a difference. God declared a handful of different fasts like abstaining from sexual relations, abstaining from bread without yeast, abstaining from work, etc. all for the purpose of consecration so that they could appear before the Lord.

I'll have to finish this in another post, its getting a bit long.

Thanks for reading! Part 2 is coming soon, so come back if you want the rest.

Blessings!