Fasting Devotion - The Question I Hate (Day 2)

"It is not the fasting that changes God's mind, but it is what that fasting demonstrates."
---from Responding to God in Fasting by Tim Temple

Here is the question I hate - "What are you fasting for?"

Every time I hear it, I get the heck confused out of me. Not because I don't understand what they're saying, but because there's a word play on that simple three letter word, "for". I have told a few people:  I'm well-taught in fasting, just not very well-learned. What I mean is that I've received a lot of teaching, read a lot of books, but still have not received that rhema revelation and passion for the practice in my life. Basically, all I'm saying is that even though I understand a lot of aspects of fasting, it's sure easy to get me off-track with it, because there's a disconnect between my head and my heart.

Often times when hearing the question I hate, I (and I believe many in the Church) automatically think of receiving something for what we are doing. What that comes down to is earning it. I'm fasting for an answer to prayer or to see God move. The connotation is that what I'm doing (fasting) earns the result (answered prayer).

Let's look at it from the other direction - the way it's meant to be understood. When hearing the question I hate (what are you fasting for?) and wrapping my head around it before responding in my heart, I can clearly understand that no matter what I do I can't earn anything from God. The nature of God is to give. All our gifts are given freely from Him and I could never do enough to earn them anyway. So, it is still true to say that I'm fasting for an answer to prayer or to see God move, which is exactly what I said in the previous paragraph, it was just in the wrong context.

It may seem to you that I've just talked myself in a circle, and I probably did. But if you're in the same place as me, you'll get what I'm saying. We must pray for a heart-to-head connect. We must pray that what we know in our minds (the logos word of God) would become revelation to our hearts (the rhema word of God). While fasting, our minds can get cloudy. We're not eating, we're probably not sleeping that well, and all our bodies can think about is that which we are lacking. So while I fast, I'm going to make it my purpose to study about it, at least until I really "get it" - until this question doesn't throw me into a tail-spin every time I think about it. I pray that as we meditate on God's Word that revelation would come to our hearts.

***Please forgive me for not including any Scripture references or editing my loads of run-on sentences, but Samweli's already awake and ready to start the rest of his day! Blessings to your family!