Fasting--Day Six

One more day!  (Actually it's two, because the fast won't end until tomorrow evening!)  How's it going?  If you've made it this far, I know one thing, you have fasted longer than most people ever will, and God is most likely speaking more "clearly" than you have experienced.  What is it about giving up food (or something else) in our lives that cleans the spiritual "wax" out of our ears?  I believe it is the giving up of control to God that makes the difference.  We are not eating for a purpose.  It isn't to show that we have control over our stomachs.  It is to show that God is more important to us than anything!  That's why this is not a week of dieting.  It isn't about self-control.  It's about letting God have control of ourselves.  As we do that more and more, we can give control of EVERY area of our lives to Him knowing that He knows best.  At the end of my week of fasting in January, I had lost more than ten pounds, was feeling so much better, and thought that I had learned a lot about myself--and my attitudes toward food, which had a lot of unhealthiness in them.  Actually, I didn't learn as much as I thought, because I went back to some of the old habits, but not ALL of them.  Just as my month of committing to 100 hours of prayer, means that I'll never go back to months of only 30 hours of prayer, so a week of fasting, will give us the ability to see what needs to be changed in our eating habits so that the food area of our lives honors God.  We may not change everything as a result, but if we change ANYTHING, and give God the glory that is a win.  The goal is NOT that we will be more pious or religious than everyone else--the goal is that God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit will be more in control of our lives than EVER!  The result of a week of fasting is hopefully a closer relationship with Jesus than we've ever had, or at least a closer relationship than we had at the beginning of the week.  That way when we go back to "normal" next week, "normal" will actually be a littler more like Jesus!