Fasting Words

Skip (who, apparently, intends to post as well and plans to post by the name everyone else knows her as) let me borrow a book a week or two ago. Was it that short a time ago? So much has changed since then. Anyway, the book is called The Rewards of Fasting: Experiencing the Power and Affections of God by Mike Bickle with Dana Candler. It's a great book and it's totally rocked my world, bringing me into a deeper realization of what fasting is and what it's designed for.

There's a chapter in the book called "The Five Expressions of a Fasted Lifestyle" and it explains that we can fast food, time, energy, money, and words. These are expressed by fasting food, praying, serving, giving, and blessing your enemies. The "blessing your enemies" bit is what surprised me--I'd never heard that before.

Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.
(Matt 5:44)

For if you forgive men their tresspasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
(Matt 6:14)

I know I can't be the only one who realizes how insane a commandment that is and how utterly uncapable we are of doing that outside of God. I'm learning firsthand just how quickly I move to defend myself, how easy it is to snap back, or to complain to my husband or friends how unfairly I'm being treated.

This is the area of fasting that is most quickly bringing up the character traits that I need to submit to God, the things in my soul that need to be purified by His holy fire. I know the only way these ugly things can be rooted out of me is to stay in these situations and die to myself, die to the things that I want to do. It's a constant checking of my first response and giving God complete control of my tongue, of my words.

This is the area of my life that forces me to my knees, repenting of what I have done (said, thought) crying out for God to give me grace, to give me strength. I am wholly unable to do this on my own, it makes me realize how completely dependent I must be on God.

Our selfishness has to die before we are able to leave our defense completely in God's hands. Refusing to speak against those who mistreat us goes against our natural tendency of self-preservation. Jesus committed Himself to God to make things right when men reviled and threatened Him...

When we bless our enemies, we give up the right to the emotional and social strength we might have gotten from fighting back. We fast from defending our reputation, and trust the Lord to fight for us when we are silent. This is perhaps the expression of the fasted lifestyle taken the least literally by believers. We think, surely God would not want me to be silent right now when that person is so overtly wrong! He would want the truth to win out, right? Confident that we are doing the right thing, we speak out to defend ourselves and expose our enemies. Yet the invitation and call of God is to willingly and agressively entrust ourselves, our reputations and our relationships into the hands of God--not seeking to perserve them ourselves, but trusting Him with them entirely.

(The Rewards of Fasting by Mike Bickle with Dana Candler, pgs 76-77, emphasis added)

Lord, teach me to rest in You. Whether I am ever redeemed from this situation or not, let me rest wholly in Your love for me. Help me to guard my mouth, Lord, to only speak Your words of love in this situation.

Holy Spirit, love this person through me. Let Your supernatural love flow through me, shift my heart towards them. Amen.