Day 5 – February 22 – [F] No snacks between meals today
RO: When a person has a “Why” they can almost do anything. Jesus, we know his “What” – he fasted, he prayed, he battled Satan. But what was His “Why”? God revealed this – Jesus’ “Why” was actually a “Who”. And His “Who” is you. // Do you have a “Why? And is your “Why” not just a motivation, not just a reason, but is it a person. Is it a “Who”? Is the reason why you’re going to enter into this Lent with everything you’ve got because of the person Jesus Christ who went into the wilderness with everything He had?
Genesis 9: 8-15
“This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you: I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
1 Peter 3: 18-22
Beloved: Christ suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God.
Mark 1: 12-15
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
Self-Denial from food. Man that’s a tough one. I wasn’t sure if I was even going to try this. But my day made it easy for me. Unlike a typical day my day started with brunch at my parent’s house followed by a baby shower where I over ate. Followed by a nap and then playing for so long with Nora that I made it until 8:30pm without eating dinner thus resulting in dinner plus what I would have snacked on but lumped into “dinner” because I ate it so late at night.
So what did this teach me today? It seems like it was more of finding a way around it than just committing to the sacrifice of doing it. Basically I avoided the sacrifice. But isn’t that how life goes sometimes? We are so good at justifying what we want so that we can do what we want as a means to ignore the hard stuff. God shouldn’t be hard stuff. He constantly invites us in and gives us opportunities to encounter Him. And what do we do? Try our hardest to keep ourselves first. But we are so wrong! God needs to be our number one priority. God is above all things. If we live for Him and not for ourselves what we do, what we don’t do, and what we deny is a sacrifice, but one done for the right reasons. Instead of thinking of it as “this is so hard for me” we should think of it as “I am doing this for the Lord.” When we fast it is not about us. It is about God and bringing us closer to Him.
A temporary fasting from what we take for granted and what controls us reminds us that we are not the center of the universe. We need to get beyond our own egos and treat God how He should be treated. We should do all things for Him, for He does all things for us.
Continue to Day 6
Give God Your Yes 