21 Days of Prayer Devotional, Day 8 (2024)
"You ate no bread and drank no wine or other alcoholic drink, but he provided for you so you would know that he is the Lord your God." Deuteronomy 29:6 NLT
There is incredible power in subtraction. Most of us live our lives trying to add. We add jobs, homes, cars, debt, activity, hobbies, social media profiles, vacations, food, drink, travel, parties, books to read, people to our network, opinions, policies, investments, and all kinds of other things.
But there is real power in subtraction. It doesn't take long to realize that, in the busyness of our lives, we've become slaves to the urgent. I once heard the saying, "If the Devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy." Oh, how well he has done his job! All of us are TOO BUSY.
We need margin in our lives, but margin isn't just the tiny sliver of space in our lives we hope for at the end of a hard day. Finding real margin to be with God, to rest in Him, to keep a Jesus-centered & worshipful perspective... the kind of margin that truly renews your mind, restores your strength, and refreshes your soul... MARGIN requires a soulful resistance to the tyranny of the urgent.
There is power in subtraction. Moses summarizes the 40 year wilderness experience of the Israelites in Deuteronomy 29:6 when he tells them that God subtracted bread and wine and other alcoholic drink so that they would know the He is the Lord and so that they would see that God STILL provides!
The lesson God taught the Israelites that He wants to teach you and me is that He is enough. That's the goal of prayer and fasting... whatever the specific prayer we are praying, whatever the outcome we are trusting God for, we trust it, because He is enough.
We're a few days in to this journey together, and you're still here! Chances are, you're experiencing a renewal. As you have temporarily removed the common elements in our lives that we go to for comfort, rest, or coping, we discover that God is enough. He always was! As you continue your fast, here are three things to remember:
But there is real power in subtraction. It doesn't take long to realize that, in the busyness of our lives, we've become slaves to the urgent. I once heard the saying, "If the Devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy." Oh, how well he has done his job! All of us are TOO BUSY.
We need margin in our lives, but margin isn't just the tiny sliver of space in our lives we hope for at the end of a hard day. Finding real margin to be with God, to rest in Him, to keep a Jesus-centered & worshipful perspective... the kind of margin that truly renews your mind, restores your strength, and refreshes your soul... MARGIN requires a soulful resistance to the tyranny of the urgent.
There is power in subtraction. Moses summarizes the 40 year wilderness experience of the Israelites in Deuteronomy 29:6 when he tells them that God subtracted bread and wine and other alcoholic drink so that they would know the He is the Lord and so that they would see that God STILL provides!
The lesson God taught the Israelites that He wants to teach you and me is that He is enough. That's the goal of prayer and fasting... whatever the specific prayer we are praying, whatever the outcome we are trusting God for, we trust it, because He is enough.
We're a few days in to this journey together, and you're still here! Chances are, you're experiencing a renewal. As you have temporarily removed the common elements in our lives that we go to for comfort, rest, or coping, we discover that God is enough. He always was! As you continue your fast, here are three things to remember:
Fasting sustains your walk with God.
When you say "no" to anything so that you might say "Yes!" to God, He ALWAYS honors that. Draw near to Him... He will draw near to you.
Fasting starves the flesh of it's hold on you.
When you say "no" to anything, whatever that thing is loses its power over you. Every time we say yes to something, we reinforce its hold on our lives. First you make your choices, and then your choices make you. Saying "no" to what we normally go to for comfort, rest, or coping allows us to discover where we've been trusting in something that God never intended to take His place.
Fasting strengthens your ability to say "No."
"NO" is a super power. Few of us truly know how to say it well. Saying "Yes" to God is always the right way to go, and that often requires saying no to things, even to good things, that keep us from saying our best "Yes." God tells us in Galatians that Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit in us. Paul tells Timothy that God does not give us a Spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. Learn to say no to the things you used to indulge in, so that you can be truly free to say your best "Yes" to God and the opportunities He brings!
Press on! God's working on you.
We're in this together,
Shay
Press on! God's working on you.
We're in this together,
Shay
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