Country steak with gravy. Garlic, mashed red potatoes. Middle Eastern green beans over herbed rice. Chocolate chip cookies.
No, this isn't fasting delirium kicking in. It's what is sitting on my stove right now - hot, delicious and waiting to be enjoyed by my daughter, Ashton, who is on her way here after work to eat one of her favorite "Momma Meals".
A surprising thing happened as I cooked for my precious girl. After 20 days of not eating solid food (except for my one day of Daniel fasting when I had soup and celery and my Sam's Club near fainting ingestion of two strawberries and 8 pecans), I wasn't tempted to set another plate and sit myself down to dine. No one was more shocked than me. How can it be that a G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Raised in the South) chick like me would pass up her Momma's country steak recipe after not having real food for 20 days? I mean, not one bite, friends. It sure smells good, and at this point of cooking, I would have at least had a bite of something just to make sure I had seasoned it right. (You all do this when you cook, now, and you know it! ) But, somehow as I made this meal, it became an offering of love. Not just for my daughter, but for my Jesus.
I had prayed that this fast would help me arrive at a new place of self-control in my life. A place where nothing, not even a basic need to eat, would dominate my desire to please my Savior. That day came today. It was staring me in the face on my kitchen stove. My own Mom's Signature Southern Meal.....country fried steak! I wanted it, but I wanted to please the Lord more. Eureka! It was a new experience for me. But, it isn't just an experience. It is empowerment to allow the Holy Spirit to come and do His work in my life and the lives of those I am interceding for.
Satan hammered away at me yesterday. Down to my core. Bringing up old issues. Telling me to stop writing. I don't have to be a gifted writer to share my testimony. I am a sinner saved by grace with a story of redemption to tell in the best way I can. I'm not worried about being a great writer. Yes, I want to bring praise and excellence to anything I do for Jesus and I pray for ability as I write about my love for him. But, I don't write to be known for my ability. He knows why I write. I want to expose everyone to His awesome love and power. Writing is one way I can do that. Someone told me along time ago, that spoken words are beneficial for the moment, but the written word is forever there to minister to generations. I like that.
I want hurting women to know that HE LOVES THEM and that their value has to be found only in Him and not what someone else thinks of you! It doesn't matter where they are in their life. Single Moms feeling lost and lonely with PB&J smeared faces looking up sweetly knowing Mommy will make the moon rise. Widows looking at a desk full of bills and statements piling up that they have never had to deal with, while they grieve the loss of their Beloved. Young women dealing with past issues of abuse wondering if they will ever be able to trust any man enough to become a wife. Older women who feel the ache of disappointment and lost dreams. Successful, professional women who have invested their lives in a career, who long for their arms to be filled with a warm, cooing bundle of baby love, thinking they have lost their chance for marriage, family and homemaking.
We all hurt. But, in different ways. Speak from where you are into the lives of others and see the healing it brings. Nothing is more comforting than the supportive love of someone who has been through the same thing as you and has come through it successfully. It brings hope. Simply, just share the love you have found in Christ with others and let Him bring the harvest in their heart. Our job is to sow the seed. The Holy Spirit will give it root and fruit. And someone else may harvest it.
If you have a testimony to the healing, redemptive power in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, do as Rev. 12:11 (yes, my life verse) says and "overcome evil by the blood of the Lamb and THE WORD OF OUR TESTIMONIES". However you are capapble of doing so......in word, song, writing, serving, loving, leading, teaching, comforting, edifying.....whatever God leads you to do.....just do.
In being "doers" of the Word, we will turn up the heat (Big Habanero Style) on the enemy of God by bringing restoration to the object of the Savior's delight, US! "US" being all men and women, saved and unsaved. Fasting puts pressure on Satan. He will do whatever he can to keep you from walking in this discipline because he knows it means defeat for him. The heat of fasting does two things: (1) It allows buried sins to come to the surface, where God can help us see them, repent and bring us restoration (like purified silver); and (2) It breaks strongholds, bondage, and demonic attack off of us and the lives of those we pray for.
I am asking you to consider fasting as a part of your walk with Christ on a regular basis. Remember Ezra and Nehemiah of the Old Testament? Both men of God who fasted for the repentence and return of their people to God. God honored them both. He also met all their requests for provision and visions. They are just God's people like us. They were just born earlier. Am I talking to an Ezra or a Nehemiah here today? Who is willing to stand in the gap for others?
Love in Christ,
Karen
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