How Will You Look at the End of This Fast?

As we begin this season of fasting, I want to challenge you to look ahead.  What will you look like on day 22?  When Daniel addressed the Officer of King Nebuchadnezzar he persuaded him to allow Daniel and his friends to forgo the rich cuisine of Babylon’s “delicacies” and instead to feast on a more simplistic diet.  A reluctant officer agreed only when the challenge was laid down that there would be a visible difference between he and his friends and the rest of the King’s court.  Just ten days later there was no denying that the four Hebrews were “different”, healthier, more vibrant and alert.

With just a little effort you can find all sorts of medical, psychological and spiritual research on the benefits of fasting.  It’s not hard to understand that the discipline of fasting can have substantial positive effects in a person’s body, soul and spirit.  Often when you go for medical tests you are asked to take no food or drink 12 to 14 hours before.   Why, because the results of the test are clearer as the result of the fast.  Think on that for a moment.  The test comes out clearer when you fast.  In other words there can be a marked difference between in the results if you fast and if you don’t.   If that is true of our physical body, how much more is it true for our spirit man?

What is it that you want to see differently at the end of your fast?  What would life look like on the other side of that breakthrough; if that financial blessing came through, if that relationship was restored?  Friend, don’t just look at this season of fasting as one more day of denying yourself of the “delicacies”, look ahead at the transformation your Heavenly Father desires to make in your life as you turn your focus on Him.

Heavenly Father, as I begin this season of fasting, allow me to see myself in a new way.  Allow me to look through the lens of faith to see my circumstance, my relationships, my life fully transformed by the power of Your grace.  In the matchless and mighty name of Your Son, Jesus.  Amen!

Daniel 1:3-15