Are you desperate enough?

Fasting challenge: Social Media, TV, Electronics

Have you ever had to fight for something? If you have ever been in an intense activity sport that pushes you to your limit, you know what it’s like to be driven to the edge, focusing so intently on your one goal that no other thought exists. Or maybe you have been in the presence of an emergency, when your decision becomes the difference between disaster and safety. Even grief can steal your mind away from every other thought. In all of these moments, there is one common factor- desperation. It is a desperation for something that makes us focus on one thing.

In the Bible, fasting was used during good and bad times. People generally fasted from food at that time, and anyone who has gone through overwhelming grief or tension likely has lost their appetite over it. It was during these times that people would cry out to God for help (2 Samuel 1:12). Just as they fasted to push out any distraction from God, we go without things we enjoy to demonstrate to God that we take more joy in Him than anything else. We push forward showing how desperate we are to hear God speak to us personally.

In the New Testament, the church would fast to clear their mind and spirit from all distractions to hear from God better:

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Acts 13:2 ESV

When they worshiped God and fasted, then they heard from God what they were supposed to do next. Do you need God’s guidance right now? Are you needing guidance for a new direction? When you lay aside normal things that you enjoy to focus on God better, He will respond to you. He promised that if you take steps to draw near to Him, He will draw near to you (James 4:8). God has spoken to His people through dreams and spiritual ways to get their attention. He will do it again! Someone you have never met could walk up to you and say something to you that only God would know. God will make a confusing situation suddenly clear. Where there didn’t seem to be a clear answer anywhere, in a moment, the solution will be there.

Fasting not only shows your desperation for god, focuses you, and makes you hear clearly, but it clears doubts from your faith:

And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”

So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Matthew 17:18-21 NKJV

Here you can see that even the apostles had to fast when they were struggling with spiritual issues. This is because fasting frees us from the weight of doubt and grows our confidence that God is who He says He is and can do what He said He would do. By helping us focus on

God, fasting makes our spirit strong and ready to change the world for Jesus!

PRAYER:

Father God, as I give up this social media/television/gaming to spend time with you, I pray that your presence will meet me. Help my mind focus on you and hear what you are saying to me right now. Help me with the things that weigh on me. Assist me when I don’t know what to do. Lift the burdens that you can carry because I can’t, Lord. Open my eyes to see what You want to show me. Open my ears to Hear what you are saying to me now. I believe, Lord, that you will build me up in my faith stronger at the end of this fast than when I began.

Written By: Matthew Foley

Categorised in: Uncategorized

This post was written by Neo Church