The Lent season began on Ash Wednesday, which fell on Valentine’s Day this year and ends on Good Friday.  Lent is when many of the Christian faith engage in fasting for 40 days in order to get closer to God, to be more sensitive to His spirit and His voice.

When you fast, you are making a decision to let go of something that you believe that you need.  Although food is commonly associated with fasting, fasting doesn’t necessarily have to be about food.

Everyone has something that they have consciously, or subconsciously, elevated to the level of their own personal god; something that they believe is necessary to their lives or to their very existence.  For some people it’s food, for some, it’s cigarettes, or alcohol, or even drugs.  Some people believe they can’t go a day without coffee or social media.  Whatever it is, it is something that they have convinced themselves that they cannot live without.

When deciding to fast, you must first recognize what it is that became a god in your life and let it go.  That is not something that is easily done because you have to go against your own personal programming to teach yourself, to convince yourself, that this thing, whatever it is, is not the most important thing in your life, that it is not bigger than God.  Fasting requires a lot of prayers and a lot of faith.

It is a beautiful thing when you come to the end of the fast and you realize that you made it through because God’s power is stronger than that thing that you initially thought was necessary to your life.  That is when God’s power becomes even more real to you.  And when His power becomes more real to you, your prayers become more effective because all doubt has been cast aside and you know that there is nothing stronger than God.

Scriptures to meditate on:

Romans 12:2

Hebrews 11:1, 6

Philippians 4:13