What If I "Fail?"

 -Pastor Bob Klecan

I suspect that more than a few of us are approaching this upcoming fast with one particular fear:  "What If I start it and can't make it?" Or, "What if I can't make three days without food," or "what if I mess up and eat the wrong things in the final four days"..."what if I...fail?"

I like the answer John Brydon gave Sunday in his message.  He compared it to learning to ride a bike.  When you're learning to ride, you will fall. You will fail. Get up, get back on, and keep riding! Truth is, there is actually no"fail" in this fast. We're not doing it to prove anything to anybody or get anything from anybody, including the Lord. We've been suggesting all along that some of us will not be able to fast food for health reasons, or that you might want to modify the fast and do just part of it.  That is great!  That's not failure!  Fast for part of it, fast something other than food, those are not failures but successes!  What if I only make it one day, or even just part of a day?  Did you spend that time in fellowship with the Lord?  Then great!  What if I alternate days, fast one day, skip a day then fast again?  Yay! What if I just fast lunch every day?  You rock! What if I fast only one day in the next week but make it an ongoing practice from now on?  You go girl (or guy)!  That would be best of all! 

One of the most common testmonies people give after fasts is that they are more aware than ever of their weaknesses, more aware of their failures,  and less attached to worldly distractions.  I don't know about you, but normally the Lord shows me my weaknesses through failures.  So... if I "fail" to fast as long as I had planned... that might be one of His teaching tools.  When I used to fast on Thursdays there were times I got impatient and cranky because I was hungry.  Those were failures, and they were teaching times.  There were days when I would not succeed in fasting the whole day, for a particular reason. Once again, these were teaching times.  Sometimes the lesson was as simple as "know thyself."  Sometimes it was more like, "Use the brain I gave you and don't try to fast a whole day when it's 95 degrees out or when you're doing especially heavy labor."

One more thing:  What if you don't seem to experience anything, or what if you have a bad experience with this fast?  It will likely happen to some of us.  Know that up front.   The goal of fasting is to grow our relationship with our Heavenly Father, to detach from things of earth, including false expectations.  

Sometimes we think that if we fast really well there is some great God-candy reward at the end.  Not so.  That is worldly thinking, anti-gospel thinking, one of the very things that the Lord wants to clean out of my life.  Lesson learned!  God wants to use our physical hunger to make us hungry for Jesus, the Bread of Life.  That isn't always easy to experience or define, and it isn't always pretty!

What if I fail?  The only failure in the next week will be to not seek to know our Heavenly Father in a more intimate way.  To not pray for breakthrough for our church family.