“…for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…” Hebrews 12:2

So, I have returned from a journey. A journey unlike any other I have ever taken. Today I return to the world driven by consumption and trying to figure out “what are we gonna eat?” I have been on a 21 day fast that ended Sunday. I have fasted a few times in the past for as many as five days and felt certain that I would surely perish for lack of food. So just imagine 21 days with NOTHING AT ALL to eat. It really is totally mind boggling to just think of three weeks and not one bite… So, as I previously mentioned, I am not going into all the minute details of fasting and the technical aspects of it. If you are interested in that information there is plenty of stuff out there. I believe it’s pretty well laid out why it’s necessary right here in Isaiah 58:6-11, when God says,

“Is not this the holy day for which I have given orders: to let loose those who have wrongly been made prisoners, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the crushed go free, and every yoke be broken? Is it not to give your bread to those in need, and to let the poor who have no resting-place come into your house? to put a robe on the unclothed one when you see him, and not to keep your eyes shut for fear of seeing his flesh? Then will light be shining on you like the morning, and your wounds will quickly be well: and your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will come after you. Then at the sound of your voice, the Lord will give an answer; at your cry he will say, Here am I. If you take away from among you the yoke, the putting out of the finger of shame, and the evil word; And if you give your bread to those in need of it, so that the troubled one may have his desire; then you will have light in the dark, and your night will be as the full light of the sun: And the Lord will be your guide at all times; in dry places he will give you water in full measure, and will make strong your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like an ever-flowing spring."

Being on a fast, especially one this long is about learning to understand desire and consequences of choices we make. We can operate in a lot of deception in our daily lives and so easily fall into the common trap of living “carelessly”. Fasting causes you to focus, sometimes very intensely, on how the seemingly simple things we do in one moment affect the next moments in our future. It is amazing how removing eating from our lives has such a profound impact on so many other areas. I never realized how just plain obsessed and food crazed we are in the US. Seriously, it is just amazing how much money is spent just advertising food. There is an entire television network solely dedicated to food 24/7. Or better yet, go to Wal-Mart in the middle of a 21 day fast. You will really see why we are so physically and spiritually sick. A fast makes you come to a dead stop and get off the out-of-control merry go round that’s trying to kill you. For me personally, I look at this fast as an investment for this year. My wife and I did it together because: 1. We believe this is what God calls us ALL to do. 2. It’s an amazing way to start and set the tone for the new year-offering a HUGE sacrifice to God. 3. Doing it together as a couple strengthens and bonds us together is a very special and unique way and 4. It creates an atmosphere where God can work and speak in very powerful ways and we become focused on the power of prayer. On a personal level it has helped me to just really focus and listen to the ever present voice of God revealing many things about His nature as a loving father. You see, I have historically had a real problem with that. My dad left me when I was 13. He decided that life was just too tough and I wasn’t enough to keep him hanging on. So, I always lived in fear that it could happen again thus that “father in heaven” thing seemed difficult for me. So, one of the things I discovered on the fast is that a lot of stuff gets stirred up in you when you aren’t eating for 21 days. You know, stuff that you thought was “stuffed away”. God has a way of just calling you out on stuff and saying “ok…now that I have your UNDIVIDED attention…” Oh boy… Perhaps another reason why we overeat??? Hmmm? So, yeah, I am getting there on the father thing and God has showed me a lot of stuff this last 21 days and I have got rid of some stuff I’ve still been carrying around, to my utter amazement. I was pretty sure I left most of that in the Atlantic Ocean last summer but apparently I was wrong. So, was the fast worth it?? Yeah, of course. Was I glad to eat?? Absolutely! However, I must end with the most incredible thing…my wife bought a new set of pots and pans and a food processor and has decided to take up cooking. Hallelujah Jesus!

I am thinking about hunger again. I know that seems to be a frequently visited topic in my blog posts, but… It really is something we need to think about more. I am not only thinking about physical hunger but I am specifically thinking about the deep hunger for God. Jesus spoke quite often about the hungry and hunger. In Luke 4 : 1-2 it says, “ Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil, And in those days He ate nothing, and afterwards, when they had ended, He was hungry.” And Satan being the ever clever liar was aware of that hunger and tried to get Jesus to turn a stone into bread. Imagine how hungry Jesus must have been after forty days? Some of us can barely last four hours. The devil knows that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach especially when really hungry. This was also apparent even in Old Testament days as Esau sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for some lentil stew. That was an expensive meal. However there is a tool that is available and often used to call our appetite into submission. It is a fast. Now I am not going into all the details and the whys and wherefores of fasting here. There are plenty of books written if you need to do a scholarly investigation on fasting. I will simply say it is a very powerful weapon when teamed with prayer to tap into the power of God to speak into your life. The enemy, Satan, wants you distracted and hungry for food and things of the world. When you fast and pray you focus sometimes very intensely on desiring what God wants and waiting to hear what that is. There is a long and extensive history of fasting in the bible and some amazing things have happened secondary to fasting and praying. Moses fasted and so did Jonah, Daniel, David and Elijah among others. Fasting takes you away from the world; it is a renewal of your spirit and a powerful form of worship. Fasting gives me an opportunity to change my diet. It is amazing when I am not attentive to what I eat that I gain weight and am still hungry. I am overfed as many of us are but lacking something in my diet. Fasting helps me to focus on Jesus, the one who can satisfy real hunger. The temporary hunger I feel is just that…temporary. It has to constantly be satisfied in a variety of ways. We struggle to appease this never filled feeling that affects everything in our lives, our jobs, our relationships and our sense of self worth. We become enmeshed in a tangled mess of lies and deception and live lives in the desperation of having to consume stuff to mollify our hunger. I have decided to tackle this issue and look at my own personal hunger. For all of us it is different. For many of us it is uncomfortable. It is not easy to face something which we hate to admit controls us and drives our every decision. But there is a reward to be had in doing this. In the bible in 2 Chronicles 7:14, it says, “ if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin and heal their land.” Can you deny that we need to repent and receive forgiveness? Can you deny the blatant truth that this land needs healing now more than ever before? Our hunger for the wrong things in this world has almost pushed us over the edge and for many it already has. It’s time. It really is time to stop the madness that pushes us to run in circles and never find peace. There is only one way. I think that it is clear what that way is. So, the question then becomes which you will choose. Are you hungry?? What will feed you this year? Or maybe we should ask…who will I feed??