When I first heard in Bible study that my church was doing a fast, I got excited but also a little nervous knowing I couldn’t eat any meat! On this fast, we could only do black coffee, tea, or water. After leaving Bible study, I felt as if I wanted to do it, but I also asked myself if I could really do this type of fast! I pushed that doubt from my mind and said yes! I’m going to do this spiritual fast to get even closer to God and seek him about different things! Saying yes to doing this fast showed me that even doubt can’t block me from my breakthrough and clarity!
There are so many benefits from fasting! The benefits I got were having self-control, hearing God’s voice more, and most importantly, peace. With self-control, I didn’t entertain the thought of eating anything on my lunch break or dinner once I got home! I took my mind off it and kept my mind on Jesus. Self-control was simply saying no to my flesh! I’m a witness that you can hear God’s voice more when you cut out all the distractions. I studied the word more, played gospel music, and I prayed more during the day. My last benefit was having so much peace. When I was fasting, I didn’t let anything ruin my mood. My mind was so focused on God that once I got home after work, I came in praying and dancing.
Ending the fast that night at 8pm I found beauty in fasting. As other believers raised their hands saying they had done the fast, I stood there smiling. I don’t know their story, but fasting for 12 hours was definitely worth it! I danced some more at church, did some singing, and when service was over, our pastor blessed us with food. What I thought was found to be hard was very easy once I kept my eyes and mind focused on God.
I want to encourage someone to never think you can’t do something when it comes to God! He will be your help! Remember Philippians 4:13! “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
