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With the price of groceries these days, it might be a good idea. 

 

Hopefully, that line sparked your curiosity and now I got you hooked! Unfortunately, I am not giving you tips on reducing the total cost of your grocery bill or encouraging your self-checkout experience to get a little fishy, fortunately, I am giving you tips on a very overlooked spiritual discipline; fasting.

 

This last weekend I had the privilege and honor to travel over to the mainland and speak at a Jr. youth retreat. One of the best parts was that during the morning breakout sessions, we had these students digging deep and learning the hows and whys of spiritual disciplines. This was amazing, we had students in grades 6-8 getting the chance to build amazing habits at a young age such as bible reading, silence and solitude, community, prayer, and fasting. It was sort of a choose-your-own-adventure type of breakout time and I was really surprised to see how many young teenagers chose to learn about the spiritual discipline of fasting. During the fasting breakout I heard something that I really loved, “so many times we are frustrated that God is not speaking to us, but is there actually a time in the week where you're listening or creating a quiet enough space”.

This can be very challenging, hopefully in a helpful way. Introducing the discipline of fasting in your weekly or monthly routine can create that space where you can focus and hear the voice of God. We see in 1 Kings 19.11-12 that God does not always speak in the big loud moments but sometimes it comes in a quiet whisper. 

 

Fasting is a recurring discipline that most often is associated with abstaining from food and this can be very beneficial for many people. I would encourage you to spend time in prayer and try to map out what fasting can look like for you. Fasting has not been a regular practice for me in my life but just recently for the month of December I felt like I needed to fast from all social media, I was not sure why I felt this as I did not think social media was hurting me in any way but once I went without I did realize all the negative effects it was having on me. I was able to focus more, was happier, my prayer life and devotional life improved, I was sleeping better and this is why we fast. Fasting from something that consumes so much of our focus, attention and time allows room for other things to take center stage. When we fast it can bring Jesus closer to us and we can listen to his voice, spend time with him, and deepen our relationship. I encourage everyone to include fasting in some way, it's not always easy so here are some tips.

 

  1. Set a clear purpose 

In scripture fasting included a spiritual purpose, this could be repentance, seeking his voice, drawing close, interceding for others, etc. 

 

  1. Prepare your heart 

Fasting needs to be in unison with prayer, scripture, and worship. 

 

  1. Set the time frame

Fasting can be challenging, but knowing when the fast is ending can help your goal be more attainable. 

 

I will be including the spiritual discipline of fasting more often in my life this year and I would love to see others doing it as well, spend time in prayer and ask yourself if there is anything you should be fasting from. 

 

Pastor Clay