Fasting

"All that time I had eaten no rich food. No meat or wine crossed my lips, and I used no fragrant lotions until those three weeks had passed." Daniel 10:3

Fasting Tidbits - the original Daniel fast was three weeks long and very extreme. Very few people can manage that, but then again we don't see very many people who can prophesy like Daniel did (especially in the world we live in today).

You see Daniel was fasting when the Lord allowed an angel to be seen by him. And this being, showed Daniel a view of the future (and the end times), which he recorded and we read from time to time in his book.

I am sure that the kinds of food and the things Daniel depraved himself of for three weeks, were things that were difficult for him to be without. But if you think about it, are things he can surely do without, for a short period of time.

We too can do something similar, not that we can do a Daniel Fast, we could maybe do so for a shorter time, one day, 2 days, 3 days a week perhaps.

But realistically, our own personal fast is something we need to talk to the Lord with in prayer, and is really between us and the Lord. It should be able to consider sound or logical thinking and our personal medical or other conditions.

But whatever it is, we do not fast to tell the whole world we do so. And we fast for one thing -- to clearly see what the Lord wants us to see and more importantly to grow our faith, and to find the time to seek after the Lord and the things of God -- to bring us closer to Him, to love Him more, to have greater intimacy in our personal relationship with Him. There is no problem on God's side, He loves us even before we were lovable. The issue has always been on our side of the fence.

You see, fasting strips us of our dependency on trivial things, lavish things, unnecessary things, disruptive things -- things that take our quiet time with the Lord. If we can pinpoint what those things are that take time away from us reading the Word of God, praying, or just meditating on the goodness of God, then we are halfway there to an effective fast. And really we should fast regularly.

So whatever it may be we are fasting from, let us fast for our sake, for the sake of our loved ones, and for the sake of the things we lift up to the throne of our heavenly Father in prayer.

God loves us so much, and He misses our quiet times together. Just you and Him. He is waiting...