The world around us always seems to want more from us, but gives less in return. It may be your schedule demanding more from you. Perhaps there are debtors wanting to be paid. Maybe there is a situation in your life that requires a lot of extra energy and it’s simply draining you. Or it may be one of the “stories” our society tells us – like the script that says the more money we have, the happier we will be. Or the more we exercise, the more desirable we will be. Or the more we drink, the easier it will be to forget. But these never really work. The more we feed these various appetites, the less we seem to get in return – we are less comforted, less happy, less satisfied and less fulfilled.
The Kingdom of God is the opposite. The more we give ourselves to him and his Kingdom, the more joy, satisfaction, fulfillment and sense of his presence we get in return. The more we are fully given to our Father and his Kingdom, the less we need all the other stuff. It’s not that all the other stuff is necessarily bad. Rather, when we look to all those other things to fill us, they can make us numb to his presence in our lives instead of giving us life.
You may ask, “what does this have to do with fasting?” The answer is “everything!” If you’re like me, when I think about fasting, images of suffering, discipline, pain, and self-denial fill my mind. The end goal of fasting has been lost to the activity itself. Like one who looses the forest for the trees, too often those who fast see only the lack, and miss the more!
The end goal of fasting is to open us up to more of God, not to make it through a week without eating or checking Facebook! While, there is an element of giving up in fasting, this is never the whole picture. There is always more, rather than less, when it comes to fasting.
In this “More with Less” fast, we are calling us to recapture the joy in fasting. There is a beauty in the simplicity of sharing a meal with a stranger (in the Isaiah 58 sense) and there is a simple goodness in forgoing a meal in order to spend time with the Lord.
In your life, what dulls you to God’s presence? Certainly, there are many things which have the power to either numb us or draw our attention towards God. What might he be calling you to detach yourself from during this week of fasting so that you can more fully experience his “more” for your life?
We will begin this fast on Sunday, March 15 and finish on Saturday March 21. We will have daily encouragements as well as a time to gather together to worship and pray in the evening of Wednesday, March 18.
It will be a week of revelry in the Holy Spirit as we dislodge our usual comforts and displace them with God’s comfort for us.
March 15 – 21
Join us!