-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.
