Fasting from Worry - 21-day Challenge

Do you struggle with worry? I do, more than I'd like to admit and I doubt I'm alone. As busy women, we could write lists full of worry-worthy items! Here's a thought for us for the next 21 days: Let's go on a fast from worry.

This weekend, during the week three session of my virtual workshop, I told a story about how God spoke to me about worry. When my son was three, he had several nights of bad dreams...about skunks. He had never actually seen a skunk before, but nonetheless they were plaguing his dreams! During the dreams, the skunks were coming into his room, and no matter how rational my explanations were about how "that's never going to happen - there is no way a skunk could get into your room...," he continued to worry about it. Then these words escaped my mouth:

"When you worry, you waste your thoughts."

God immediately convicted my spirit. I worry and waste my thoughts too! How can we escape this brain-draining and faith-stealing habit?

1. Purposefully pay attention to what our thoughts are focusing on. Worrying is a habit, and most of the time we do it without realizing it. Pause for a moment, and write something down on a worry list or journal. "I am worrying about _____." Having that visual written down will help us know what we're up against!

2. Use the Word of God. We can meditate on verses/truths like these that address the root of our worry:

• Be confident my heart, because the Lord has been good to me. (Psalm 116)
• You are working all things out for my good... (Romans 8)
• I will be anxious for nothing, and I cast all my cares upon You... (Philippians 4)
• My heavenly Father knows all the things I need, and I seek first His Kingdom (Matthew 6)

3. Pray for God's perspective. Sometimes, I can almost hear Jesus speaking to me like He did to the disciples on the wind-tossed boat, "Oh you of little faith." If we could just get a glimpse of our situation or problem from His perspective, our whole viewpoint would change.

Are you with me? I'm going to take this 21-day fasting from worry challenge starting now. For the next several weeks, please send me your thoughts on this topic to include on the KBWomen blog. Thank you!

posted by Krista Dunk

21-Day Fast - Lessons Learned

Lesson Learned: More God, Less Me

There are many reasons people may choose to fast. Some may fast to lose weight. Others fast for religious traditional reasons at certain times of the year. What I have learned from fasting this year is fasting is to humble oneself before God; to completely surrender in faith and trust to God. In humbling oneself, we are asking God to take over and we are asking God to draw nearer to us. We are asking God to change us. God does not change for us when we fast because God is the same now as He was in the beginning, as He always will be. When we fast, we are changing ourselves in order for Him to work through us and in us. We are seeking our true selves through God. We are saying "Yes" to Him and saying, "More of you Lord and less of me."

If you choose to fast, you can take comfort in knowing that a fast is anything you wish to refrain from for a certain amount of time. You can take a fast of food which is the most common or you can do other fasts...you can fast from television, you can fast from sex, you can fast from smoking, you can fast from anything that you wish the Lord to speak to you about during your fast so that you can receive your breakthrough. It is important to pray while you fast, because like said, it is a surrender...and refraining from anything for any proportionate length of time takes patience and most importantly prayer.

Fasting brings you closer to God, it allows you to remove yourself from what it is that you are fasting from so that God can remove blockages from your life and work miracles for you. Have faith and trust that God wants to work wonderful things for you. He loves you. I have learned this over my previous fast: More God, Less Me.

Sincerely, Drisana (Angelica Carmouche of KBWA)

21-Day Fast Blog Journal: Cravings

Cravings

Lord God in Heaven, I used to crave for physical things, more clothes than I need, more time than I need, more food, more of everything. All these physical cravings consumed my thoughts, my lifestyle, my everyday when I should have been craving more of you. I knew you were always there Lord, at my side and at my back, but I should have been looking for you at my front to guide me. I lost sight of what I was supposed to be doing. I was walking without a plan; had too many clothes, too little time and money management and too much food consumption. I had only to rely on you for a plan instead of relying only on me.

Over consumption of anything will lead to a loss of something with whatever I do. Spending too much leads to debt, not managing money and time wisely leads to waste. Allowing food to consume me has led to unhealthy body and an unhealthy spirit life. I don't want my spirit to starve Lord, so I rely on you so that I can resist the temptations and redirect my cravings onto you Lord. Jesus, Lord you were tempted so I know I am not alone. Temptation does not have to come in the form of food; it can be in any form, and produce all kinds of unhealthy cravings. Lead me not into temptation guide me towards your spirit of truth.

Today I sustain a deep craving Lord God; a craving for your spirit and truth. I wish to be consumed by the spiritual cravings of truth and life, not of darkness and death. The life of the righteous is in your hands. Lead me to the cross where I lay my burden down. God be with me. Amen.

Contributed by (KBWA Member Angelica Carmouche) Drisana - http://askdrisana.blogspot.com/

21-Day Fast Blog Journal

Search for a Deeper Meaning

Sometimes when I write or think, I have rambling thoughts and everything comes out jumbled and confused. It is like I am typing on the keyboard and every second or third key that I hit sticks and I have to hit it several times and it ends up like ttttttttttthis. Does life seem like this to you sometimes? That is when I realize that I have to take deep breaths, quiet the noise in my mind and in my heart, and ask God for peace. I have learned over this past week how to truly allow God to take over, to hand over my problems, fears and concerns to God, not to pick those problems back up and try and tell Him what to do with them. In the past couple of weeks of fasting and prayer, I have found a portion of inner peace that has allowed me to truly surrender to God and not fear the future unknown.

Lord God, my life is in your hands. To you I give total surrender and hand over all my worries, fears, doubts, insecurities. I will not pick these problems back up and tell you what to do with them. I will let go, as it well should be with total faith in my surrender to you Lord. Keep guiding me Lord, and draw me closer to you so that I may have strength in the journey.

Amen

Drisana -

21-Day Fasting Journal Continued...Weekend Fasting Days

I have learned that God speaks to you when you are quiet; when all the noise is quieted in your life, including the noise in my mind. I experienced my own awakening this weekend. I felt the presence of God while I was lying down, my child was sleeping, the television was off, and my eyes were closed. This is what I heard:

Some people who experience God tell you they have experienced Him and it is usually after a huge loss. The Lord has moved into their lives they tell you and changed them and it is after they have experienced a trial or a terrible circumstance. There is nothing wrong with that the Lord was telling me because it has happened to me. But what then...the Lord asked me personally, what have you done after God has come in cleaned everything up made you feel better and moved you forward in your life? Remember now....God was speaking to me...ok. Let me change the tone. The Lord asked me, "What have you done after I have cleaned everything up? You have taken the mile I have given you and regressed backward inch by inch until you are doing exactly the same thing you were doing before that led you to calling out to Me in the first place. If you would have just stayed with Me instead of pulling back you would have been even further along. Does that make sense to you?

The Lord asked me that..."Does that make sense to you girl?"

The Lord showed me in my mind where I had asked for His help, called out His name and how He had answered me. He showed me the times He had placed answers in front of me and I chose other paths. He even showed me how He had used those diverted paths of mine to better me. The simplest thing is this, God told me this in my personal prayer..."You don't need a loss to call out to me. You don't need a terrible circumstance or a horrible consequence. You don't need those things at all to have Me in your life all the time. You can have victory in your life without having to suffer loss after loss after loss. I don't want you to suffer, I want you to experience the freedom of knowing that I am with you every day, every moment, and that you can be secure and happy with that knowledge and move forward in a positive way."

As I prayed on this, I understood that I do not want to suffer any more losses either. I want God in my life without the pain of self-inflicted loss and I do not want to regress either. I didn't know how long it was going to take for my own spiritual awakening, but it was pretty quick according to my standards. I guess it is because I discovered that I am expecting again, and the Lord who knows everything revealed these things to me now in this short period of time. Now my prayer is focused on having another healthy pregnancy and birth. My faith levels have definitely been raised. My attitude about food has changed as my hunger for spiritual food has grown. It is absolutely amazing what God can do.

I pray that God continues to use me as an inspiration, and I pray that if you decide the same that you experience your own awakening with God.

Praise God by the power of His Holy Name, Lord Jesus. Amen

Drisana - http://askdrisana.blogspot.com/

Day 5 of a 21-Day Fast

I am grateful to God that I started today out with a prayer. "Lord God, just be with me Jesus." I had no idea how much strength I would gather from those few words in a prayer. I can't express that enough because I have said those words many times today. "Lord God, just be with me Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. There is nothing like the name of Jesus."

Oh, it was tough today, really rough. The devil was working all kinds of tricks on my mind and in my heart. But you know it wouldn't be God if the devil wasn't trying to work on me. My birthday is coming up, and a friend of mine wants to take me to lunch. I asked him if he would mind waiting until after 5:00pm and then told him why. "It is a fast from sun up to sun down," I told him. Well, he told me it was just foolishness that he would have to "plan his life around events," and he wasn't going to do it. So I told him "never mind." God, God, God, oh well - something must be coming to revelation that day on my 35th birthday. I will wait and pray on it. The Lord knows I am being true to my commitment.

Keep me in your prayers, this is as I have said a commitment to God and I am dedicated to keeping my word. It has for sure been a conditioning of mind, body and spirit.

Be still and have faith in the Lord whose strength I hold near to my heart.

Drisana - http://askdrisana.blogspot.com/

21-Day Fast, Day #4

"Not by my will, Lord, but by Your will be done."

That is what has been rolling through my head all day today as the 4th day of my 21-day fast. It is interesting to me how far from God and His perspective I have been in life; after removing food for just four days now, how much I have leaned on nothing but the support of the Lord God Jesus Christ. I have called on His name in my mind. It is interesting to note that this is not something that I have done in my life just recently. I have prayed, yes. I have seen God answer prayer and have felt the power of prayer in my life, yes. I have been a testimony and have seen my own personal miracles occur. But now, I can actually say that I have felt God pull me closer in to Him, and I have felt His presence more.

There is more to this I know; there is more than I have to learn. I want to learn more. I yearn to learn more, to feel more, to have more passion in life for Christ. I have committed myself to this fast, and it is absolutely amazing to me that I have a new desire a new driving hunger to have a more initimate relationship with God.

I cannot speculate on what will happen next. I am experiencing as I go through this and I am learning. It is not easy, but when it gets the hardest, and believe me the devil tries to play on my mind...calling on the name of the Lord and praying, "Lord, God if this be your will then let it be. Not by my will but by your will Lord God be done." Total surrender, total trust.

Have faith and be still.
Drisana - http://askdrisana.blogspot.com/

Angelica's Fast - Day #3

Day 3 has been both a challenge, and an answer to prayer. I honestly did not expect a call to my heart such as this when the Lord spoke to me. Some challenges have been on my heart. With challenges, we feel troubled, and with those troubles I went to the Lord in prayer asking for guidance. I received an answer to this prayer as quickly as my mind thought the request. I was told not only to keep blogging, but I was told to write the past troubles that I had gone through out.

Being an imperfect person, I have been through many different things. My own self-inflicted trials and tribulations to name a few, and have not always actively sought God in my life. Of course I always believed in God, I always believed that Jesus Christ died for me and my sins. Yet I did not fully know what that meant, and in my ignorance, I lived my life for myself not fully having surrendered my life over to God. I believed in God, and yet I lived as if He did not exist. I only went to Him if I saw there was no other way not fully realizing that He is the way.

Lord, I do not wish to live my life as if you were a sidebar to my question mark. I wish to live my life in complete surrender to you God. I wish to live my life in total trust in your truth and your word. God in giving myself over to you, I have complete faith that you will redeem me in what has been lost and I will be found in the protective Glory of your Grace and your Heavenly Holy Spirit. Thank you Lord God, for your mercy, thank you Lord God for all that you have done for me. That my sins have been forgiven by the sacrifice you made with your son Jesus. Thank you Lord God. In your Heavenly name I pray.

Amen

by Drisana - http://askdrisana.blogspot.com/

Fasting Day #2

Day 2 of my 21-day fast has reached midday, and I have not had a single craving for food. I am leaning more on spiritual hunger and a thirst for more of what God has in store for me. Life gets in the way of a lot of things. I have found that when I am not thinking of breaking for lunch or what to snack on next, I am conversing more and more with God.

This challenge is just that - a challenge to discipline myself through prayer and devotion, knowing that the Lord will take care of all things that come my way. This fast, like any other challenge in life, is just one way to show that God has the reign no matter what we may think we are in control of. It is like my Grandmother used to tell me, the best way to make the Lord laugh is to tell him your plans. God has a positive plan for all our lives. I believe that more now than I have ever believed anything in my life. We make what we think are mistakes but God takes our "mistakes" and turns them for His Glory.

Lord, your ways, make known to me. Teach me your paths, guide me in your truths and teach me. For you are my God, my Savior, for you I wait all the day. Psalms 25:4-5

Drisana - I can do all things through the God that strengthens me.

(Angelica D. Carmouche) http://askdrisana.blogspot.com/

Day 1, of a 21-day Fast, by Angelica Carmouche

Day 1, of a 21-Day Fast

Well, it is day 1 of my 21-day fast, and of course the day was started out with a prayer. "Dear Lord, I do not know what I am doing but I know you will help me along my way. As I start this journey, walk with me Lord. Let me not close off my mind just to keep from thinking of food, but allow my mind to be open to you Lord Jesus. Allow my spirit to be receptive to what you want revealed to me over the next several days and lead me in the direction you wish for me to go. Thank you Lord Jesus in your Heavenly name I pray, Amen."

I am praying constantly in my mind, "be with me Jesus." Every moment, my mind is on the Lord. I surrender to God and trust that I do not have to rely on food for any comfort. That is hard, because for so long food has been my comfort. Now I am telling God, "Lord you are my only comfort here because I have removed food from my comfort zone." Only God is occupying my comfort zone.

Wow, how much does it take to say that and actually mean it? It is a faith feeling. I am drawing nearer to the Lord, believing in the promise that He will draw closer to me. I am walking a journey to discover what my true purpose is and how to fulfill it.

Pray for me as I continue to pray. I hope to inspire as others have inspired me, and during this time to keep hold to my faith and encourage me. I am reading AWAKENING A New Approach to Faith, Fasting, and Spiritual Freedom 21 days to Revolutionize your Relationship with God By Stovall Weams.

Pastors Stovall and Kerri Weams have been an inspiring aspect in my life and just hearing them speak and teach at Women's Conferences or on special Sundays at Healing Place Church (HPC), I have been blessed to have received the word from them. It is amazing how much being in attendance at HPC has changed my life. Pastors Dino and Delynn Rizzo, the leaders at HPC, are absolutely amazing. Through them, God has opened Faith doors for me. I thank God for them. It is only by walking through those faith doors that I have the devotion and strength to go through this, and I know that God will carry and see me through.

I look forward to this learning experience and the spiritual growth that comes from it.

Drisana (Angelica D. Carmouche)

http://askdrisana.blogspot.com/