pick a preacher.....any preacher......

Yesterday our church started fasting to bring in the new year. I have heard so many people testify on how powerful it is to be part of a fast and how close you can be brought to God. Many people are doing a traditional fast where they abstain from most food where as others just eat small portions of fruits/veggies to sustain their energy. The main purpose of fasting (from what I perceive) is it helps turn inward and fill our spiritual needs (instead of filling our physical needs) and help us find God's will.

I decided to do a quick research on fasting and found this on new-life.net:

God said, "When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you" (Jeremiah 29:13,14). When a man or woman is willing to set aside the legitimate appetites of the body to concentrate on the work of praying, they are demonstrating that they mean business, that they are seeking God with all their heart.

At our church, there are nightly services of prayer. For more than one reason, we are unable to participate in the fasting as far as attending church every night and the traditional fast. So we decided to do our own version. I am sure it is not "religiously" correct and quite possibly frowned upon by more seasoned church folk.......but our intentions are good so I trust that God will know this.

So part of my "fasting" is limited internet, no message boards, online groups, etc. I am disconnecting from as much as possible and substituting it with digging deeper in my faith. Well, for the most part,.....I will still be blogging as it is my spiritual/creative outlet. I want to press forward and see what God wants from me this year, in all aspects......my direction, my children, serving Him. So the time I usually spend surfing around the internet, in my early morning uninterrupted hours......I am getting back to learning, reading and prayer. Because I am not tapped into checking in and/or keeping up with other stuff......I can focus all my energy on God.

So tying into my "pick-a-preacher" title..........there is a great site called Lightsource.com that has the video broadcasts of many well known preachers. There are some that I really enjoy watching....Beth Moore and TDJakes to name a couple.....and then others I choose to pass on. So this morning, as part of my "daily bread"......I watched a sermon on children/parenting by Jeff Shreves that was really good. It was about 40 minutes long and I feel that I am starting my day more prepared ingesting God's word/teachings.....far more prepared than checking out the latest deals from WOOT.com, FatWallet.com or some of the other sites I have bookmarked for my daily check-in routine. (which btw, are great fun sites to check out!)

G and H, on their own decision........chose to give up things that they value for the next couple of weeks. G is giving up the computer all together.....(that is huge). He also is going to commit to reading a few pages of Live Like a Jesus Freak each night, along with a daily devotion book. (if you know G.....the fact that he is reading anything is a huge "leap of faith", HA!) H is giving up his guitar and using his video/camera equipment. Another huge sacrifice on his part. I have a family devotion book that I purposely placed on our coffee trunk in the hopes that someone would pick it up..... I saw H flipping through some pages last night, so I hope he continue with that as well.

I am not one to force the kids to do anything against their will (in obvious cases). I don't want to shove the Bible down their throat as well all know where that will lead. I never even told them they had to fast. In fact,.....they came up to me and told me what they were doing. Again, so thankful that they are involved with the youth group where serving God is the norm.....and expected.

Oh, so when E and N heard about what their brothers were giving up.....I decided to ask them if they would like to give up something for God for the next couple of weeks. N thought that giving up being a "pesty little sister" would be a good thing to try giving up. (so now apparently, this confirms her intentional pestering)........E suggested homework.

*sigh* I guess 3 outta 4 ain't bad.

I hope this finds you smiling and well......

peace and love~

*~Michelle~*