Before I left for my year abroad in France I was doing the college church fair circuit at Bethel and Northwestern College in Minneapolis and I met this great guy named Tom from Navigators at the U of M. Don’t remember what church he was with but we were able to talk about the church and scripture at length when we were at Northwestern. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation and felt like it helped me understand what I believed better but I left that day troubled with something. Why did I feel better when I fasted each week. It’s a question that really has plagued me. I didn’t have an answer, aside to say I felt off when I didn’t. Well several weeks late I was reflecting upon it and this is what the Lord revealed to me about it. Yes it may appear as a discipline and we Christians are scared of ‘legalism’ but that is a heart issue. Fasting is a lost blessing for your faith we all could desperately use. Here it goes:

When I fast it’s a time of extra-intimacy with God, as if a private training session for war, the war between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. Removing myself from what I normally do to focus even more on Christ. It is my day of battle each week when it feels as though my sword moves without fault, the day that Satan can’t touch me, and he knows it. It’s almost as if he tries to get me, to stump me, and he throwing everything he has at me. Yet I stand strong.

This day carries me through the rest of the week. It shows me I have what it takes, It’s the day when God shows me that I have the ability to destroy anything that stands up against me, my ministry, my heart, and someday my wife. I fast to feel my true strength, and within a week I have all but forgotten it, my arms have grown weary, my armor is loose, and I must again beseech the Lord. Asking Him even more specifically to tighten the straps, straighten my helmet, and tie my shoes. Taking a day to let him heal my wounds, encourage me, show me new moves, show me more of what I’m fighting for, and tell me I have what it takes. That I may stand strong, rejoicing in the victory of God through me, and hear his voice telling me, urging me, to fight even harder. Telling me I have everything I’ll ever need, because He gave it to me. When I fast, I am at my strongest.

Beseech the Lord through your petition,
~paul