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.
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