To kick off every new year, my church does a 21-day fast. It’s to regear and recharge our minds, hearts, and spirits and direct them back to God – like a fresh new battery pack for our spiritual lives. I’m excited to share with y’all what I’ll be fasting for these first few weeks of 2019!
Before jumping into the new year however, we must also reflect on the previous year with the following questions: Where are your roots planted? Are you growing spiritually? What is the spiritual fruit in your life? How have you grown since this point last year? Where do you want to be at this point next year? What good things do you want to be said about you?
Those are all loaded questions but certainly things we must put a lot of thought into. Where our roots are planted is extremely important and ultimately guides where our path in life goes.
Jeremiah 17:5-8 reads: The Lord says, “Cursed is the man who puts his trust in mortal man and turns his heart away from God. He is like a stunted shrub in the desert, with no hope for the future; he lives on the salt-encrusted plains in the barren wilderness; good times pass by him forever. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and has made the Lord his hope and confidence. He is like a tree planted along the riverbank, with its roots reaching deep into the water – a tree not bothered by the heat nor worried by long months of drought. Its leaves stay green, and it goes right on producing all its luscious fruit.
Where are you planted? Are you planted in the Lord? Is your life planted to build, to surrender, to follow, to obey, and to have the foundation of Christ? Or is it planted elsewhere – in the world with human reasoning, human strength, and societal cultural?
So how do you grow these deep roots in God, roots by the riverbank that thrive throughout every season, decision, situation, problem? FASTING.
The principle of fasting is the idea of removing something out of our lives and replacing it with something else. Fasting is the fertilizer for our root system; it accelerates growth and closeness to God. Ultimately, it’s discipline. We are practicing the discipline of God. We’re flexing that “no” muscle. In a society that tells us we need more and more and MORE of what we want/crave, we now flex that muscle of “no” against those things. It’s totally counter cultural but is the one thing that accelerates kingdom culture.
When you control your physical cravings, you can control your emotional cravings, thus strengthening your spiritual cravings. Allow the appetite of the spiritual to take over the appetite of your physical.So what should you fast? The most common is fasting food. You can give up breakfast or lunch everyday and during that time, pray. But you don’t have to fast food. You can fast anything you want. Generally, it’s something you have an addiction to, something you constantly crave, or a bad habit – social media, sweets, shopping, laziness, Netflix, an ex-boy or girlfriend, whatever. Replace the time you would spend doing or thinking about that thing and replace it in prayer.
The first thing I am fasting is my first hour of my day. The first thing I do once I turn my alarm off is check emails and Instagram. I spend a solid hour in bed on my phone before getting up to do anything. I am working the second I wake. Instead, I will be using that first hour to pray, reflect, read the Bible, and read my devotions. I’ve been putting them off to midday or night and it’s not something I am liking. I’m truly addicted to work so I need to kick back into gear my first and main focus.
The second thing I am fasting is sweets. My sweet tooth has gotten SO bad (it used to be slim to none a couple years ago) so trying to control that and praying for control of that physical part will be a sure challenge.
The last is fasting from Nordstrom. Lol. You laugh now but the amount of time and money I spend on that website is actually ridiculous and borderline crazy. I mean, I just can’t get enough of TopShop and Free People, I just can’t!Imagine what a church can do if everyone just fasted an hour of their day in prayer. Miracles. So I encourage you to fast. To recharge that spiritual battery pack to make sure that it is strong and fresh for the new year! Plant your roots in the riverbank now so that as 2019 continues on, you’re not shaken by what is thrown your way.