How to Worship When You Want:Three days without the main things I've used to cope in 2020
I woke up Monday morning to the still small voice that said, “fast. Jen, I want you to fast.” Now before you get to thinking how “woowoo” I am—it wasn’t audible. It didn’t startle me. It was simply the words in my head as I opened my eyes and I knew in my heart it was the Lord. I laid there for a few moments staring at the ceiling. “Really God? Why? I don’t want to. I don’t think I can.” This is when I knew it was more than my own thinking and a clear directive from the Jesus. “Fast. Three days from food and social media. I want you to cleanse.”
I am not in a BAD place when it comes to my online activity. Any angst it created for me in the early parts of this COVID life I have already muted. It has become a place of escape. I do find myself mindlessly swiping thumb to screen to find joy, meaningless information or numbing emotionally a bit. Same goes for food. It’s not been by nemesis, but it’s certainly not been my best friend. As a health coach I know what to eat and when to eat it. I typically put very little energy toward what I put in my mouth. But over the course of this year I have found myself obsessing over when I can grab my next snack and what can I eat that’s not awful for me, but bad enough to soothe me emotionally.
So here I am. Three days without the main things I’ve used to comfort, have fun, escape or ignore what’s really going on. I will obey the prompting of God. Listen to Jesus and do what He says, it’s often that simple. I need him. And I’m taking it one day at a time. I’m leaning on the strength of God and I will WORSHIP when I WANT.
I share this not to over-expose my intimate walk with God. But to offer you an invitation in. The goal of fasting is to draw nearer to God. Biblical fasting always has to do with eliminating distractions for a spiritual purpose. It hits the reset button of our soul and renews us from the inside out.
Here are a few things that I am using and ways I am focusing over the next three days.
Here are three tools to assist you for these three days of fasting.
1. A bible
2. A worship playlist
3. A journal
Here are three areas to shift your focus daily.
A day of celebration. This can be about who God is and what he has done. The goal of the day is PRAISE.
A day of preparation. This is the day I am asking the Lord to prepare and equip my heart for whatever is next. Fasting always provides breakthrough. So this day I seek his strength, wisdom and assurance in what He is preparing me to do.
A day to reset and renew. I am committing a day to sit in his presence. This focus will simply be to restore my soul. No requests, no answers, just the stillnees of the power of God to fill my life.
If this resonates with you and you desire to grow more in your faith, I would love to hear from you. You can always respond here, direct message me on Instagram or take a big leap of faith and join my Significant Life Group that’s launching January 26, 2021. This is an investment in your life that might be the time for you to make.