I want you to tell your stories! In the coming days and weeks, I encourage you to share on this blog your experiences of how prayer and fasting are impacting you.
As many of you know, during the season of Lent our congregation, along with hundreds of others, is encouraging one another to renew our commitment to live prayerfully and we are also encouraging one another to practice a fast one day each week leading up to Easter. (Please follow this link if you'd like to read more about prayer and fasting and how our congregation is embracing these ancient spiritual disciplines: http://almacog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/prayer-and-fasting.pdf.) I'm writing today to ask you to share your stories. Today and in the weeks to come, I invite you to share your experiences, good and bad, success and failure, on this blog. I'm planning to leave this blog entry standing, rather than write a new entry each week, as I typically do. I'm hopeful that many of you will share your stories, struggles and testimony in this space. (If you wish to remain anonymous that will, of course, be respected.)
2 comments:
For me, the experience has been both rich and frustrating. I've done it twice so far (24 hour fast) and each time I sensed how letting go of the urge to eat (which, I became aware, happens more often than I'm usually aware of) can be liberating. I was aware of how the letting go of the desire to eat can also lead to letting go of other things, like ideas and attitudes. The fast did also help me to think of others who are without. Both times, however, as the day went on, I became fuzzy, had headaches and grew tired. I'm finding this both good and difficult.
I began fasting without expectations. I knew if God wanted me to experience anything it would happen on His time and not necessarily on the day I fasted. Recently a young lady called the church office seeking help. One of the request she had was a need for a meal or two as she headed back home to Detroit. I never offer cash to anyone but I felt in her situation (she is pregnant) that I just had to do something. All I could think of at that moment was Matthew 25:40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." I had $10 in my purse but I was also aware that my own family needed it so I prayed for His wisdom. A gentleman walked into my office, handing me a $20 bill and said he found it on the street and wanted us to use it wherever needed. REALLY? Just like that! God is good ALL DAY LONG!
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