“I set my face to the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.” (Dan. 9:3)
t’s January 1st and all across the world people are starting their New Year’s resolution desperate to make a change in their life once and for all. I don’t mean to sound like “Negative Nancy” or “Debbie Downer” but we don’t need another resolution we need revolution.
What’s the number one New Year’s resolution? Weight loss. Is it at the top of your list? It was on mine and if you are anything like me you’ve probably been fighting with food all your life or at least since your first resolution failed. You promise yourself to start over tomorrow and enjoy your last meal tonight. But as you know, tomorrow never comes. In frustration and failure you turn back to your vice looking for comfort. However, it brought none, instead it had the opposite effect and now you are carrying the extra weight of quilt and shame around your waistline too. “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.” (Rom. 7:15 NLT) Round and round we go, where we’ll stop nobody knows.
“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24)
Jesus Christ can!
Beloved, there is no authentic “comfort food,” but there is authentic comfort found in the arms of Jesus Christ, “the Consolation of Israel.” (Luke 2:25) Diets fail because they deal with the symptom of being overweight, not the underlying reason of why we over eat. So on July 20th I began a 21-day “fast for freedom.” Losing weight won’t bring you freedom but freedom will bring you weight loss.
I understand that many of you do not have a food addiction but the principal that is found in the book of Daniel is the same. Daniel fasted for freedom.
Fasting for freedom when your captor is food seems like an oxymoron, right? Yet, if you needed to be free from cancer you would fast, so why not this? Freedom is freedom and whether you need to be free from shopping, smoking, drinking, obsessing, over-working, or anything else, some things won’t “go out except by prayer and fasting.” (Matt. 17:21) You fast because it matters to you and you are asking for Divine intervention.
I don’t want you to focus on the word “fast” but rather the word “freedom!” Let’s take a look at the life of Daniel and I’ll explain. In 606 BC, Daniel was just a teenager when he was taken into captivity as the Jewish nation was taken over by the Babylonians. Chapter 9:1 gives us the time line as being “the first year of Darius” when Daniel got a profound revelation. He understood the reason for Israel’s captivity and he saw the hope for their hopeless situation too. Scholars believe this was around 537 BC meaning that Daniel was in captivity for sixty-nine years when he got this revelation. The reason I draw your attention to this is because Daniel grew up in bondage. So often our situation seems hopeless because we grew up in it. We succumb to being or acting a certain way because it is a “generational thing.” Mom was overweight, dad was an alcoholic, grandpa was filled with rage, or grandma had emotional problems. Because we grew up that way we tend to develop that particular tendency as well and assume that identity as our own. However, their junk-n-funk does not have to become our baggage for “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” (2Cor. 5:17)
Daniel “understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.” (Dan. 9:2) I love to study numbers in the bible. The number seventy symbolizes “punishment and restoration.” Sadly, because Israel ignored the advice of the prophets and defied God’s instructions by following her own will, they wandered further and further away from His comfort and care. Finally God carried out His word and lowered His hedge of protection allowing them to be overcome by the Babylonians. God is not penalizing us, however, He is allowing us to be carried away by our desires in hopes that our circumstances will cause us to call out to Him for help. That’s exactly what Daniel did.
As we look at this from Daniel’s perspective, we can see choosing our will over God’s has spiritual as well as physical implications. Our decisions have brought us here. There are consequences for every single action we take and quite often they lead to physical and/or emotional suffering. But here’s the thing that gets me, even though God was only following through with what He said He would do, He still built in a plan of redemption for them…seventy years in Daniel’s case, but ultimately Jesus Christ.
Yeah, Daniel knew the shame was on their face but instead of giving up as many of us do, lying down in the bed we made, he turned to the Lord with everything he had – fasting and prayer. Beloved, please hear this, God desires not just to deliver us but to heal us as well, even if we brought the damage on ourselves. Daniel prayed a bold prayer and appealed to God’s great mercy, not his efforts of fasting and prayer, saying, “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.” (Dan. 9:19) God LOVES us; that is why He delivers us in the first place. God doesn’t deliver us to suffer; He brings us out in victory. Freedom is the whole picture. Salvation is an all-inclusive word signifying forgiveness, healing, prosperity, deliverance, safety, rescue, liberation, and restoration. (Strong’s #4991) Christ’s salvation is total in scope for the total man - your body and your soul, not just your spirit.
What was the result of Daniel’s fasting and prayer? One year later King Cyrus allowed the Jews to begin returning to their homeland in order to rebuild the Temple. Daniels fasting brought God’s promised freedom. How ironic is it that the Holy Spirit used this portion of scripture to bring this revelation to us today in 2008 – eight symbolizing new beginnings. The Jewish people were set free to rebuild the Temple of God because it was destroyed in the battle likewise; we are being set free from personal bondages in order to rebuild our own spiritual temple. “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1Cor. 3:16) HalleluYah!!!
o you desire to be free from whatever holds you? There is a key to your prison door. Many of us go into the New Year’s resolution with determination but willpower will only take us so far. We don’t need more willpower we need His power.
2 Tim. 1:7 says, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” This is the Holy Spirit that God gave us. It is His Spirit that comes with the fruit of self-control, not our own. What we fail to fully comprehend when trying to overcome something big, is that He never said we needed to be strong but rather promised that in our weakness He would strengthen us. This revelation is the key that will bring the revolution.
“Thy will be done” is not as easy as it sounds. Freedom is what I craved, but I craved Doritos too. We are free the moment the Son sets us free, however our feet have a long way to go before we reach our destination. There are a lot of hindering habits that pop up along the way that attempt to draw us back to bondage. Furthermore we have an enemy prowling around seeking to steal, kill, and destroy every victory we obtain. My “goal weight” wasn’t my target, my goal was to be free from my eating disorder once and for all, not just get in control of it temporarily in order to lose weight. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood or food, but with principalities in the heavenly places. By using my own willpower I was fighting a losing battle. Our weapons are not physical but mighty in God. Fasting and prayer are just some of the weapons in the Lord’s arsenal.
A spiritual fast is a devotional practice that is a part of the faith life of religions all over the world. For a set time, the believer chooses to do without something that is hard to do without, for the purpose of seeking God in a deeper way. Usually, the fast is to do without food or drink but you can also fast from watching TV, buying pleasurable items, hobbies you crave, things you are drawn to such as music, books, news, movies, even the internet. This is done so that thing does not come between the believer and God. I notice that in the bible, fasting is always coupled with prayer. Fasting is an act of our own strength. Therefore, if we do it without prayerfully asking the Holy Spirit to help us keep the fast, it becomes our own good works. No flesh is gonna get the glory; our freedom comes by the hand of God and God alone.
The fast brings God’s will into view and keeps us focused on the fullness of freedom that we are desperate to experience. As we fast, we pray. As we pray, our free-will lines up to His-will and we gain the much needed control over what we eat, what we drink, what we see, how we spend our money, how we spend our time, etc. etc. etc.
Let me warn you the market is saturated with programs to help the desperate dieter get his or her appetite under control. From A to Z, there is a diet program that covers just about everything conceivable that you could put in your mouth. Daniel’s food regiment was a diet of obedience but his fasts were for freedom.
Programs that tell us to eat this or not to eat that aren’t freedom, they just replace one yoke for another. There is nothing new under the sun, no new diet, and no new food that will miraculously cause us to lose weight. When we stop eating more calories than we are burning, we will lose weight period.
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” (Gal. 5:1)
Barring any medical constraint you may have, fat is not the enemy, carbohydrates aren’t and either is sugar. The Enemy is your enemy. “Everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it. We may receive it gladly, with thankful hearts” (1 Tim. 4:4 NLT) All things are lawful but all-you-can eat of it is not. Furthermore, since what we put into our body is what fuels it, it just makes good sense to choose healthier items.
I did not give up any food or food group…I gave up over-eating. My fast was to eat only my daily allotment of calories suggested for my age, weight, height, and activity level and no more. The guideline I followed suggested saving some calories from each day to use on the weekend, which helped a lot with social functions. I counted my calories to maintain my fasting status when they were finished for the day my eating was supposed to be too.
So, who makes the rules of a fast? You and God do. I felt very strongly from the Lord that I was not to begin something that I could not maintain for the rest of my life. The Lord advised me not to look forward to the day when I can eat a certain food again but rather He taught me how to eat it now in moderation through the power of the Holy Spirit’s self-control. Also, I applied Daniel’s choice of not eating any of the “king’s delicacies” to my fast. I wasn’t sure what a “king’s delicacy” was in Daniel’s day but for me I made it to be any food that was unprofitable to my temple during my fast. For example, I put my favorite cheese on a sandwich instead of mayo because calorie for calorie cheese has protein and calcium benefits whereas the mayo did not. I substituted whole-wheat crackers with cheese instead of Doritos or an oatmeal cookie instead of sour patch kids. I wanted every calorie to count; it needed to taste good and satisfy my palette while at the same time have some health benefits for my temple.
Naturally sometimes were more difficult than others. Let me remind you that Daniel got thrown into the lion’s den; he didn’t walk into it by choice. We all will encounter temptation time and time again but we certainly don’t need to walk into the lion’s den of our own free will. Take the bag of temptation out of your shopping cart, don’t wander around the kitchen when you are bored, and certainly when you are depressed don’t go to the fridge for a hug, it is nothing but an ice cold companion. Pick up the phone or your bible and receive comfort from a Friend instead.
Nothing tastes as good as freedom. When it was hard I focused on the Lord, remembering that the He alone is “the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Ps. 73:26) Beloved, He is your consolation, not a piece of pie, drink, cigarette, or new sweater. He is Shepherd of your soul. Whatever you need He is it; God is the great I Am.
We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Holy Spirit, take our hand. Amen.
*There is a BLOG set up called “FFF” which stands for, Fast for Freedom. Please come share your struggles, your victories and your recipes. Come ask some questions or provide some answers. Let’s help each other along the way. Tiffany Ann.
**Every diet program I have ever read tells the dieter to consult with their physician but people seldom do. Beloved….please do, please go check it out. Do your research. The Internet is full of nutrition help. My Doctor suggested the American Diabetes site. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and deserves the best care. Gather your thoughts and ideas together and write them down and bring them with you along with some recipes you think might work and go for a consultation. What do you have to lose besides some weight and incorrect theories?
