thanks for any input :-]Lemonade cleanse/diet.. i need tips for getting through a 10-day fast!?
he following provide some practical principles that will assist you in fasting with the least number of distractions. They come from a resource of personal experience of those who fast often and have been forced to learn the hard way to find the smoothest path into the sometimes difficult personal terrain of fasting. During a fast, focus is critical. You will become painfully aware of how nosy, chaotic and cluttered your world has become. This is because fasting will force you to slow down. Vacations allow us to leave our busy life for awhile and escape to a quieter landscape. Fasting is quite the opposite, instead of an escape, you will come face to face with your life in a new way. It can be overwhelming, even unmanageable when all the years of useless pursuits flash before you, demanding focus and attention.
Here are ten principles which will help manage the chaos and find victory and power over your life again.
1. Tell the least number of people that you are fasting.
Fasting is an exciting event and it is easy to blab off to everyone that you are on a fast, especially when you begin to experience the incredible benefits. The problem is that you set yourself up for failure and disappointment when you make your fast public. There are two reasons for this:
First, most people will think that you are crazy. They will not understand. And if you do not have any fear of fasting, they will supply all the fear you need. Satan often uses those who are closest to us to cause the most trouble.
You look like you have aids!
You鈥檙e becoming a fanatic!
You鈥檙e going to become protein deficient!
Times have changed, people don鈥檛 fast any more!
Are you under a doctor鈥檚 supervision?
Fear, fear, fear, fear--the last thing you need on your fast is fear. And, keep in mind fear does not come from God, it comes from the devil.
Secondly, do not tell people that you are fasting as it can cause the fast to become a law to your heart. When you are tempted to break the fast, the thinking will be that, Aunt Myrtle, Uncle Ed, Dad, Mom, and half the church know I鈥檓 on a fast. If I quit now, I鈥檒l be humiliated in front of all of them.
Your fast is between you and God and no one else. And when you are being tempted to break, it is not Aunt Murtil you need to be concerned with. You are fasting because you are in love with Jesus. The key to a great fast is to stay fixed on Jesus, not people or circumstances. Keeping your fast between you and God will help you stay focused in times of temptation.
2. Turn off the TV.
Watching TV while on a spiritual fast will become increasingly ridiculous. In every commercial you are being tempted with food. Most of all, it destroys your Christ-focus. It is not going to kill you to turn off the TV and radio, and stop buying the newspaper. The world will continue happily along without your presence. Of the many times I have broken a fast, I can usually root it back to allowing myself some form of earthly distraction.
Even a short fast has many different stages. Fasting speeds up emotional states to the point where one moment you will have a sense of closeness to God with a feeling of well-being and the next moment the bottom falls out and you feel empty and cold.
Remember, a tug-of-war is going on in the soul between the flesh that is being inflicted, and the spirit that is being strengthened.
You are the most vulnerable when you鈥檙e feeling deprived. That is the time when you must be aware of the temptation to find an escape. Let God be your entertainment. Turn to Him when you feel deprived.
Look for your Bible, not the converter!
3. Get alone with God.
Fasting and solitude have always gone hand in hand. Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit away from the crowds, into the desert. (Luke 5:15)
What kind of man would King David have been if he had not spent countless lonely nights as a shepherd. Where the stars were his friends and the harp, a way of expressing his heart to God. It is in loneliness and the quietness of solitude that we learn friendship with Jesus. It does not matter how large a ministry you have, you need to get alone with God. Your ministry will survive without you--and if it doesn鈥檛, it was built on the wrong foundation, you not Christ!
4. Feast on His Word.
Just think of all those lost hours of time spent on radio, television and newspapers. Well, during your fast make a diet adjustment. Saturate yourself in His Word. Use every available means possible--tapes, books, videos, Christian television, but most of all, the Bible.
But be careful, you might develop a renewed mind. You may begin to think differently. Behavior patterns may begin to surface that others will think fanatical. The Word will develop within you an irrepressible enthusiasm that, you can do all things in Christ who is your strength, and you are the righteousness of God. You might have the nerve even to think that the only difference between you and the apostle Paul is that
No comments:
Post a Comment