21 Days of Prayer & Fasting - Day 10

Day 10
Good day to each of you!  Let's go in...

Devotional Scripture & Thought
Here is today's scripture with underlined areas of the verse(s) for us ALL to contemplate. I will share a brief thought and you are invited to share your thoughts about the scripture and those highlighted areas in the comments below...

"Moveover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward." Matthew 6:16 (NKJV) 

The interesting thing about starting to make progress in our spiritual disciplines is the very real chance that we can fall prey to little doses of pride. It looks like this, I decided to start fasting from most foods and after a few hours or days, especially when I'm feeling the impact of fasting, I start to show it outwardly. I'm looking pathetic, making soft complaints, and playing for the sympathy or adulation of others. For those of us who are not as familiar with the concept and practice of fasting, we have a scripture today that offers some insights on how to actually do it. We are to treat our time fasting as normal as possible, refraining from contorting our face, or belly aching in a pleasant way to others for their responses.

The point of fasting is not the inappropriate attention we get from others, it is about surrendering to the Holy Spirit in ever increasing measures. In those moments, we short circuit the process by taking the attention for ourselves instead of keeping our attention on Him.  I understand when experience a headache or other very real byproduct of fasting, especially if we are just starting out, it is tempting to make it a prominent part of our daily living, but we are advised to just NOT do it. Otherwise, that little bit of attention becomes our reward versus the reward(s) we would actually get from our God. 

What are you reading and what are some of your thoughts...?

My Journey's Observations
Largely on autopilot now. I do miss certain foods, and I still catch myself about to go to my forbidden apps for scrolling, but I am okay. 

How about you?

(I also wanted to remind us of a great resource called RightNow Media that you have free access to for quality teaching. If you need help getting to it, please give me a call. In fact, here is an invite if you haven't already signed up.)

For those of you who are news junkies and are seeking a more healthy alternative I wanted to share something called The Pour Over. It strives to be a neutral source of news bites that decidedly points people to the bible. Remember, we should always be working to allow the Holy Spirit to empower us to plant our feet on higher (and higher, and higher...) ground.

Finally
Remember, if you slip and eat or do something you were intending to fast from, just reset and restart. That is part of the learning curve as well.

I love you with the love of God...

Have a wonderful day and a tremendously blessed week!

Blessings,

Pastor Kris