I seem to be a goal-oriented, type-A personality without the intense emotional upheavals that some people like that often have. Still, in my not too distant past, I was tempted to do, do, do, go, go, go, hurry, hurry, hurry, now, now, now for weeks, months, years at a time. One of my nasty habits was staying up too late at night because I wanted to squeeze in one more project. I ended up creating stress that could have been avoided.
In early January this year when my pastor called our church into the 21-day Daniel fast, I knew my challenge wouldn't be abstaining from certain foods or TV. I did that most of the time already. No, my idol was time, and relinguishing control was going to be difficult. But I sensed the nudging of the Lord to do just that. He didn't require I give it all, just increase my daily prayer and Bible reading. So I let go and obeyed. The more I read about what Jesus did in His earthly ministry (I love to read while I listen to a dramatized version of the NIV), the more I realized I needed attitude adjustments BIG TIME. To help that along, the Lord planted a yearning in my heart to become more pliable in His hands.
The fast officially ended Friday night with a wonderful five-hour prayer service. (There is nothing as fulfilling as being prayed up and sensitized to the spirit of God.) I left there shortly after midnight, determined to stick to my commitment of allowing God the freedom to deal with me from now on in any way He chose. When I awoke Saturday morning, I spent my first two hours in various types of prayer and joyfully devoured several chapters of the Bible. (I wanted to give Him the first fruits of my day like we should do the tithe.) Just as important, I practiced listening to His voice and was diligent to write down what I heard. This had been a slack area in my life before the fast. The result: yesterday was an exciting day in which I accomplished exactly what the Lord wanted me to do without any pressure. Hallelujah.
Another thing He showed me was that I needed to spend time on me from the healthy eating and living perspective. A person who is always in a hurry often short-changes herself when it comes to preparing and eating proper foods. I tended to eat the same things over and over instead of forcing myself to take the TIME to expand my food choices by trying out new recipes. It led to dissatisfaction and reaching for other foods that didn't satisfy either. So the Lord plopped the desire in me to experiment with healthy vegetarian recipes (I use the ones Hallelujah Acres http://www.hacres.com/ offers.) to build up my immune system with foods that won't bore me. Now my mealtimes have turned into delightful adventures. I can hardly wait to try another treat. Our God is such a wonderful, loving Father.
I have a deeper sense of surrender and expect more changes on the way. And by God's grace, I will allow Him to clean me up according to His perfect will. Amen and amen.
God is a good God, He's worthy to be loved, honored, and worshipped. Praise the Lord.
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Mary, I love your blog. I can see right into your life through your words. There's nobody like Jehovah! Love and Hugs, Lee http://run4theprize.com
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