when your tummy grumbles... pray

      "So we fasted and prayed about these concerns.
                                                                And He listened."

- Ezra 8:23

I've never fasted before. Mostly because I have always been a little bit fearful that it would trigger my eating disorder & partly because I've just never been compelled to do so.

This past week our dear friend & founder of our church, Bruce was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. With a complicated surgery looming, his beautiful family asked us to fast & pray for him. For the first time even in my life, I felt completely & utterly convicted to do the whole thing.

I think people choose to fast in different ways. Some fast from certain meals, committing that time instead to prayer. Some choose to fast from everything but fluids for a certain amount of time. Others just from certain foods or from other things that take their time away from prayer.

I decided to fast from everything but water from the time I woke up this morning until we heard news of Bruce's surgery... praying for Bruce & his family whenever my stomach growled.

I found myself praying at random times. In a work meeting. In my car on the commute to & from work. At my desk. While I was waiting for my daughter to get out of cross country. When I got the news that Bruce had made it out of surgery. That it had been successful. That our dear friend was resting peacefully.

I'm not telling you this because I want you to think I'm some kind of spectacular person. I'm not. I'm telling you this because I don't want you to be afraid of fasting. It's not some kind of mystical thing that people did way back in Bible times or that people of puritanical persuasion do today.

19th century Scottish missionary, Andrew Murray reminds us that, "Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God."

This is what God wants... for us to seek His face on behalf of others. So that HE may be glorified.