Fasting

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In the New Testament, some form of the word fast is used 20 times. The original Greek word was Nesteuo (νεστευο):
to abstain as a religious exercise from food and drink: either entirely, if the fast lasted but a single day, or from customary and choice nourishment, if it continued several days.

Nowadays the act of fasting has been extended to activities such as going to parties, being on the phone too much, or even reading. For the past few weeks a friend and I have been having breakfast together to catch up and to have time with God. We’ve been reading out of My Upmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers and praying over what his daily devotionals have been giving us. Out of this has come our desire to start fasting more. About two weeks ago we decided to have our first fast: to abstain from reading for a day. We had come to the conclusion that we spend too much time reading books for enjoyment and not enough time in the Word. Let me just say that we did not do so well. Yes, we did keep our fast, but instead of turning towards God when we felt the desire to pick up a book, we turned towards other ways of keeping us entertained. We didn’t grasp the meaning of a fast. So this past week after we had a week to talk openly about our first fast and how we didn’t truly understand it, we decided to try again. This time we would fast from all forms of social media for three days. Obviously we aren’t doing anything drastic, but we are choosing things that are distracting us from God, things that are making us forget about his love, glory, and grace. At times it was difficult; you don’t really realize how often you go to Facebook, Instagram, or Buzzfeed, until you aren’t supposed to. It had become such an instinct of mine to immediately open those apps. I started to realize that the times I was about to go onto one of these platforms, I was just trying to kill time out of boredom. Whenever I would catch myself in those moments I would flip open my Bible app, or put my phone away completely and just spend time with Jesus. It is astounding how the majority of what I do is just to fill time, to stave off boredom. That is not ok. I should not be trying to just get through the day, because all that leads to is tomorrow. How mundane and depressing would life be if it was just moving from one day to the next until your death? If these morning devotionals and talks have enlightened me on anything, it would be how gracious God is. I've begun to take notice and thank God for everything he does for me, and let's face it, he does practically everything for me, from waking me up in the morning, to allowing me to meet amazing and kindhearted people, and ultimately saving me daily from myself.  His absolute, unyielding love is incomprehensible. I understand now that I not only need to, but that I desire to spend more time with my amazing God.