Fasting refines us.

FASTING REFINES US. FASTING DOESN’T TWIST GOD’S ARM.

For over 3.5 years Matt and I tried to conceive a baby. We fasted. We prayed. We did all we knew to do. Having a baby was at the top of our prayer and fasting list for years. Year after year, the prayer was left unanswered. It seemed like everyone was getting pregnant. Baby shower invitations seemed to come regularly, but never an invitation to the most important baby shower of all – mine. I was in a place where it seemed like my prayers were going unheard. I felt like I was in the wilderness all alone parched and weary without any water to drink.

In seasons of drought a tree’s roots will go deeper and deeper to find the life-giving, thirst-quenching water that sustains it. After a tree survives a drought, its root system is stronger than before. So when storms come, the tree is stronger and more ready to withstand the outside pressure that pulls the tree this way and that. It’s the same with us. Outside pressures and the cares of life can threaten to break us. And sometimes we do break. But finding shelter in the presence of the Almighty renews us and gives us life-giving water that restores and refreshes our soul.

My roots grew deeper in Christ in those 3.5 + years than they did all the years prior. I had to have an encounter with the Lord or I felt like the grief of lost dreams would suffocate me. Those years taught me that God does answer prayer. When I felt like I was all by myself, God put the right people in my life to encourage me, to give me godly wisdom, and to help me keep on moving forward.

Years later in the chaos of my home filled with kids, I sit here and remember the nearness of God during those years where my prayer wasn’t answered yet. He was so near to me and I look back and realize that I was never truly alone. When I remember what he has brought our family through – infertility, cancer, financial hardship, and many other things, I thank God for the prayers answered and I stand on those answered prayers and believe He will see me through again! And I believe He will make a way in those impossible situations in your life too!

PRAYER:

“God, I thank You for the plan that You have for my life. As I draw near to You help my roots to grow down deep so that my faith in You is firm and unwavering. I believe, but help my unbelief. Make a way in my life where there seems to be no way all for Your glory!”

OTHER VERSES:

Isaiah 43:19
For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

Isaiah 55:6
Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

James 4:8
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Matthew 19:26
But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Written by: Dana Owens

Categorised in: Uncategorized

This post was written by Neo Church