Blogmas Day 4

So, during this Blogmas, we are aiming to grow our  relationship with God, while separating ourselves from the parts of us that do not glorify him, and one of those things that helps in doing that is fasting. 

Fasting is a way to kill the flesh spiritually and increase your spirit. There are different ways that people do it, but it is mainly an act of obedience and sacrifice to grow yourself in God. In the bible, fasting was seen as an offering to God, and a heart posture. When you are positioned correctly during fasting, meaning that you are solely fasting not for any other benefit than growing your relationship with God, he honors your sacrifice in wanting to get closer to him.  James 4:8 states, resist the devil and he will flee from you, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. 

Before I began Blogmas, I fasted to make sure my heart was in the right place for this. Being an ambassador of Christ is a role that I take seriously, sometimes (most of the time) I am very hard on myself, but there are souls attached to ministries, so it's very serious. 

Fasting is also a way of receiving information from God, having that heart posture to ask God a question humbly, and having the patience for him to answer you is critical. Many leaders in the bible fasted in order to hear from God, and in order to receive a breakthrough from God. Fasting is powerful. 

But Raylyn, how do I actually fast correctly? 

Understand the reason behind your fasting. What are you wanting to release, or what are you praying for God to do in your life? 

Identify what kind of fast God wants you to do. When I first started fasting, it was mainly a season of fasting where my cousin and I fasted certain times a day, we consistently fasted at various times, I was young, so there were times I slipped up, or I didn't truly understand why I was fasting, but God was showing up in my life like no other. I truly believe the prayers and fasting of my youth preserved me to where I am today and then some. 

Know your weaknesses, and confess them to God, ask him for strength. 

It didn't take until about a couple of weeks ago for me to share my feelings with God about fasting. Your girl likes to eat, so there were times where during my whole fast I was thinking about what I was going to eat during that time. God honors honesty, and he will gladly take your weakness and create strength out of it. I gave the Lord my frustrations about fasting, and my most recent fast went better than previous ones because I surrendered my weakness to him, and now I was able to focus on the Lord. Praise God loll. 

Lastly, just do it, make it to the finish line. Don't worry about messing up, now you feel you have to start over again.. No, keep going. The race is not given to the swift, nor the strong, but the ones who endures to the end Ecclesiastes 9:11. God will honor your efforts, keep aiming for him :). 

This is a part one of fasting, I will go deeper in the coming blog posts :)