fasting-empty-plate-6

HOW’S YOUR GRUMP?

Okay, so I am going to assume that I am not the only one that gets grumpy sometimes during a fast:) During a fast, you not only detox physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. Just as when impurities leave your body they sometimes cause adverse effects like pimples, oily skin, bad breath, aches from old injuries (you get the idea), you can also detox in non-physical ways as well. There maybe unresolved relational pain that rises to the surface. Emotions from your past and thoughts that you thought were forgotten suddenly arise out of nowhere, but your mind and emotions want healing as well. The only way to get healing and get past those things is to eventually deal with them and fasting seems to bring them to the surface. When they come to the surface it comes out as grumpy and bitey. Although these things can be painful to deal with, they lead to a full life that loves better.

I think when the prophet Isaiah addressed the attitudes of the nation of Israel when they were fasting is just as applicable to us right now 2700 years later. He said:

2 For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. 3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. 4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? ~Isaiah 58:2-5

Don’t forget that when you are fasting you don’t need to take your issues out on the people around you. It isn’t their fault you are grumpy and dealing with stuff, even if you want to blame them because it makes you feel better. Learn that your issues are yours to deal with … but also that God is there wanting to heal you through it. Those around you should be blessed by your fasting. Press into the Lord through it and you’ll find the more you put down your flesh and act against what you really want to say and do the more joy you’ll actually have. You will also realize freedom and healing is directly proportional to forgiveness and overcoming your flesh. He will give you the strength all you have to do is ask!!

Happy Fasting!
P. Sean

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