{"id":242,"date":"2018-01-09T12:12:08","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T12:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.honestreflections.net\/?p=242"},"modified":"2019-12-10T08:44:27","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T13:44:27","slug":"closer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2018\/01\/09\/closer\/","title":{"rendered":"Closer"},"content":{"rendered":"

“When you fast…”\u00a0 Matthew 6:16<\/strong><\/em>
\nI have spent my entire life in the church, my fondest family memories are sitting in the wooden pews of Tidal Presbyterian.\u00a0 Dad, Mom, Matt, me and Ron all seated in a row.\u00a0 The older gentleman behind us, God forgive me, I can’t remember his name, always gave us chiclets.\u00a0 Dad always stood outside the front doors, smoking cigarettes with the guys before the service started.\u00a0 Rev. T. Donald Hamilton was our pastor.\u00a0 Loved him!
\nIn all those years though, I never remember learning about fasting.\u00a0 There is a real possibility that I may not have been paying attention.\u00a0 I didn’t really start to learn about fasting until I was an adult.\u00a0 I definitely didn’t start practicing fasting until the last 15 years of my life.\u00a0 I did know about Lent.\u00a0 I always liked to give something up for Lent every year, even as a child.\u00a0 I didn’t truly understand the full scope of what I was doing.
\nNow I do.
\nFasting is a powerful tool.\u00a0 My devotional this morning said it best:
\n“There is a closeness to God that you simply will not experience from prayer or personal devotions alone.”<\/em>\u00a0 Excerpts from Awakening: A New Approach to Faith, Fasting and Spiritual Freedom by Stoval Weems (pp. 63-64)
\nThat is why I love fasting.\u00a0 It draws me into God’s arms.\u00a0 It is like nestling into His shoulder, all warm and cozy.\u00a0 The insights He reveals to you during times of fasting are life changing.\u00a0 He has changed my life through every fast I’ve done.
\nThere are several different types of fast you can do.\u00a0 Our church started a 21 day fast yesterday. Here is a great resource to learn more about fasting:
\nhttps:\/\/www.watersedgechurch.net\/21daysofprayerfasting\/
\nDuring this 21 day fast, I am fasting one meal a day and spending the time in prayer.\u00a0 My husband and I are completely fasting one day a week together.\u00a0 I have already been doing a modified Daniel Fast which is why I chose to fast an entire meal.\u00a0 A lot of people are doing the Daniel Fast for the 21 days.
\nI am so excited about what God will do in my life, in our marriage and in our church through this collective fast.
\nThere are so many facets of fasting to talk about, I can’t do it in one blog.\u00a0 I want to share one of my most life changing fast experiences with you as an example of why I love fasting.
\nIt was several years ago.\u00a0 I was going through a difficult time with my immediate family.\u00a0 My Mom had been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer,\u00a0 My brothers and I were at odds with each other, no one was speaking to each other.\u00a0 We were all so torn up in our emotions, no one knew what to do, we all felt so helpless.\u00a0 In desperation I turned to God.\u00a0 I didn’t even know what to pray, but I knew I needed Him more than ever.
\nI started a 10 day fast.\u00a0 I decided to fast breakfast and lunch, praying during those times instead.\u00a0 I have to tell you, those prayers were more like groans.\u00a0 I didn’t even know what to pray.\u00a0 I just clung to God, trusting Him.\u00a0 Pouring it all out to Him.\u00a0 It was about half way through the fast I felt the tides turn, for lack of a better way to describe it.\u00a0 I knew that I had found victory in the spiritual battle I was fighting.
\nImmediately I thought, “Yay, I can stop fasting!”\u00a0 Even quicker I heard God say, “Do you want the full victory or the partial victory?”\u00a0 I knew I wanted the full victory, so I continued the fast.
\nI received the full victory.\u00a0 It didn’t happen overnight, it didn’t happen in the next week or month.\u00a0 In fact, some aspects of it took years.\u00a0 My family is fully restored.\u00a0 My brothers and I learned to work together.\u00a0 We learned to enjoy Mom’s last years here on earth with her.\u00a0 We were able to let her go to the arms of Jesus when the time came, all of us at peace.\u00a0 All of us together.
\nThe person who God changed most during this particular fast was me.\u00a0 He didn’t change the circumstances. He didn’t change my brothers.\u00a0 He changed me, because I was the one who needed to be changed.
\nIf I ever need to be reminded of the power of fasting, I just think of those ten days that changed my life forever.
\nThank You God!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“When you fast…”\u00a0 Matthew 6:16 I have spent my entire life in the church, my fondest family memories are sitting in the wooden pews of Tidal Presbyterian.\u00a0 Dad, Mom, Matt, me and Ron all seated in a row.\u00a0 The older gentleman behind us, God forgive me, I can’t remember his name, always gave us chiclets.\u00a0… Continue reading Closer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1574,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions\/1574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}