Unexpected

If you would have suggested to me last week at this time that I would be on the 5th day of a 40 day fast I would have called you crazy. The idea of fasting has never really tempted me. Lets be honest what is tempting about not eating for 40 days? Aside from the thought that I might loose a few pounds not much, and there are easier ways to lose a few extra pounds.
But here I am five days into a 40 day fast. So what in the world? Well, too be honest it is out of this world. God grabbed my attention, asked me to fast and I obeyed. I don't write this to say, "hey look at me, I obeyed God." No, in fact had I been doing a better job obeying God on my own, I may not be fasting at all. You see I got to a point in my relationship with the Living God, where He wants to really get my attention, to change my focus. To move me from a self centered follower of Him to a Christ Centered Image of Him. That sounds somewhat self centered I know, but there is no other way to say it. God has been trying to get my attention off of me and my desires and on to Him and His for sometime now. It is just that now I am at the point where I can trust Him enough to actually allow Him to replace my desires with His.

So that is where the 40 days of fasting come in. It is a symbol and a opportunity to trust God to care for all of my needs, even the most basic of needs. It is not just starving myself, it is taking the time I would have spent eating or going out to spend time with my God who is hard at work replacing my desires with His. And though that concept would have struck fear in me even a month ago, I can honestly say, it provides peace now.
Everyday I have opened up His Living Word, the Bible and found His words to meet my needs. To provide the reassurance I need to keep trusting in Him. Today I opened to Psalm 40 and this is what God's Word said...

I waited patiently for the Lord;
He turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
He set my feet on the rock
and he gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the Lord.
Blessed is the man
who makes the Lord his trust,
who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods.

It goes on, but you get the picture, God is meeting me where I am. Placing my feet on the Rock as I put my trust in Him.

I am not suggesting that you start fasting. But I wanted to share what God is doing in my life. To give Him praise for the work He is doing. To point out that God's Word is alive and active and not just words on a page. And to hopefully encourage you to trust the God who created you to continue that work. To allow Him the freedom to remove the part of you that is not of Him and replace all of that with more of His Character. This is not easy, but as I talk with friends across the globe I see that God is calling out to His Children, longing for them to trust Him with more no, make that all of their life.

Be encouraged by His Word, that He who created a good work in you will carry it out until the day of completion.